Time Limits on Weekly Compensation for Injured Workers
Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Council
Assent
Introduced by: The Hon Sophie Cotsis MP (ALP); The Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Damien Tudehope LIB
“On behalf of the Opposition I speak against some aspects of the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 in its present form. The bill will decide how we treat our most seriously injured workers. It is emblematic of the form of government that the Minns Government will be known for. There are times in the life of a Parliament when numbers can no longer hide the truth.”
Abigail Boyd GRN
“I express The Greens’ utmost opposition to the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. If this piece of legislation is allowed to pass in its current form, it will result in people’s deaths. It is as simple as that. It is a bill that should never have been proposed and should have been withdrawn in shame once its true nature was revealed.”
Mark Latham IND
“I contribute to debate on the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. Never before in the Parliament’s history has a bill been based on such a betrayal. Labor’s pledge to injured workers was made only to be broken, as outlined in the previous two contributions to this debate.”
Mark Banasiak SFFP
“I contribute to debate on the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I disclose that my wife has worked in the workers compensation space for over 20 years.”
Taylor Martin IND
“I cannot believe that we have gotten to this point. Let me be clear: This is a very dark day for this Parliament. There is a lot in the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, and there are a lot of amendments that it is proposed will be debated later on today.”
John Ruddick LIBT
“I make a contribution to debate on the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The New South Wales workers compensation system has become unsustainable. The celebration and elevation of victimhood has inspired a generation in which some are hunting for ways to be offended and upset.”
Susan Carter LIB
“I have had the opportunity and the very great honour of hearing directly from workers who will be affected by the changes in the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, which is before the House tonight. I participated in the first workers compensation "all you need to know in a day" inquiry run by the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.”
Tania Mihailuk IND
“I make a contribution to debate on the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. Workers compensation law in New South Wales provides stiff competition with income tax law, being some of the most complex and difficult to interpret and apply in our country.”
Daniel Mookhey ALP
“Damien Tudehope; Ms Abigail Boyd; the Hon. Mark Latham; the Hon. Mark Banasiak; the Hon. Taylor Martin; the Hon. Susan Carter; the Hon. John Ruddick; and the Hon. Tania Mihailuk. I do not propose to give a particularly lengthy reply, mainly because I feel that many of the matters people have raised will be canvassed extensively at the Committee stage of the debate.”
News articles and press releases
Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
Ms SOPHIE COTSIS, Minister for Industrial Relations — 2025-05-27
The new legislative framework introduces new definitions and objective tests to determine whether a psychological injury is compensable; establishes an accelerated process for assessing psychological injury claims for excessive work demands, bullying and racial and sexual harassment; introduces a greater degree of objectivity in the application of the employer defence for work-related psychological injuries; provides a new role for the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission; ensures workers with severe psychological injuries will continue to access lifetime medical treatment and care and weekly payments until retirement; limits the duration of weekly payments for all other workers with a primary psychological injury up to 130 weeks; and gives effect to a stepped increase in permanent impairment threshold to access ongoing weekly payments, work injury damages, permanent impairmen