Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): It is a great honour to rise and speak in support of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Provisional Payments) Bill 2020. As I was preparing my notes for this bill, I reflected that it has been a little over a year since I rose to speak in support of another one of our landmark bills relating to workplace safety, and that is of course our monumental workplace manslaughter laws. Those laws ensure that employers who negligently cause the death of workers or members of the public are held to account for their actions. They send a clear message that the loss of life cannot ever just be the cost of doing business, and what struck me at the time were the many personal stories of loss shared in the chamber. What struck me was the immense difference that legislation would have made if it had been introduced a generation earlier, the pain and suffering that would have been prevented.

At the time I said that as legislators in this house we have no greater responsibility than to protect the lives and wellbeing of those that we represent. Everyone deserves a safe place to work, and when things go wrong everyone deserves access to the help that they need, and that is what this bill is about. Because even though mental injury may be harder to talk about, harder to see, harder to prove, its reality is no less palpable. We only have to look to the events of last year to see just how much our workers can be asked to confront in the day to day of their jobs. Whether it is bushfires, coronavirus, family violence situations or a multitude of other circumstances, our workplaces and our jobs can have an immense impact on our mental health.

This government and Labor governments across the years have always made the health of Victorian workers a priority. As others have noted, it was the Cain government in 1985 that established our safety and compensation scheme. Those reforms made it safer for people to go to work, and we have been building on that historic legacy of reform ever since. This bill delivers on our election commitment to introduce a provisional payment scheme for workers who have suffered a work-related mental health injury. In essence, it means that workers will be able to access payments for medical expenses like the cost of a GP visit, psychiatrist or psychologist appointments or medication they might need for their mental injury while their compensation claim is being determined.

The importance of having them be provisional cannot be overstated. Mental injury is not as clear cut as a broken arm or a leg, and coming to terms with one’s own mental injury is a difficult and courageous step in itself. Imagine being in that position, having come to the point of being willing to reach out for help, only to have the response be, ‘No, just wait’.

Mental injury claims have grown significantly over the past decade and are only expected to increase further, with 33 per cent of all new claims expected to be related to mental injury by 2030. Each of these claims represents a worker who is struggling, who is in pain and in some cases whose life has forever changed, but what it does not represent are the workers who have not put in a claim at all, the ones who are suffering in silence, keeping it all in and unable to reach out for help. Both the Productivity Commission report and the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System have demonstrated that for people facing mental challenges, accessing support quickly is critical and that not being able to access support quickly can be deadly.

Last year I had the opportunity to host a mental health forum in Northcote with Dr Stephen Carbone, was is the founder and director of Prevention United, a mental health organisation focused on prevention of mental health conditions. I first met Stephen when I was writing my own submission to the Victorian government’s royal commission into mental health, detailing the key mental health issues and the impacted cohorts in my own community. Among the many issues that we discussed at the forum was mental health and the workplace. Dr Carbone spoke about the importance of good mental health practices at work and, critically, about the importance of accessing quality support early. This is exactly what this bill aims to do for workers across Victoria.

We need to be on the front foot when it comes to helping workers access support. However, we know that mental injury claims are often more complex. As a result they take longer to process—up to 27 days for a mental injury as opposed to around seven days for a physical injury. As a result a worker with a mental injury could be waiting for around five weeks to access treatment—five weeks without support, five weeks of uncertainty, five weeks that could result in long-term harm and significantly delay or even prevent them from returning to work. The delay can also put a huge financial burden on workers, and, as we know, this burden can sometimes turn into a barrier, with out-of-pocket costs discouraging workers from seeking support. These costs can also directly negatively impact workers’ wellbeing, as the stress of these additional financial burdens, combined with the uncertainty of their claim outcome, can cause further harm. By taking a proactive, early intervention approach, workers will be supported to access help as soon as possible, making it easier for them to recover and to return to work sooner, and that is better for individuals, better for families and better for our community, our businesses and our economy.

An important aspect of this bill is of course the provision for workers to access payments for up to 13 weeks even if their claim is rejected. This is really critical, especially to allow for a fair outcome for workers whose claims may be initially rejected and later accepted on appeal. For those workers whose claim is ultimately rejected, this provision allows them the support they need to transition to the public health system and back into work.

Mental illness and injury can affect anyone, no matter your job, no matter your background, no matter where you live, and we want workers to reach out for support without fear of what the cost will mean for their family and regardless of whether their claim is accepted or not. These provisions have been developed in close consultation with employer groups, unions, injured workers and medical and legal experts. Their expertise has been instrumental in this process, and I thank them. They also reflect the findings of our successful pilot, providing provisional payments to emergency services workers and volunteers.

I know that the opposition have proposed some amendments to this bill, which would mean that workers would have their support terminated at the point at which their claim is rejected. I have got serious concerns about that approach, and it does not reflect the evidence we have about what leads to better health outcomes. Ostensibly their argument is about the economic cost of more support, but I suspect that at their core these proposed amendments revolve around a fear that false claims might be made in order to access these provisional payments. That is a very cynical starting point, and it does not put health and wellbeing first. It does not put Victorians front and centre, where they should be. As others have noted, there are very clear evidence-based reasons why continuing to provide care over an extended duration leads to faster recovery and a quicker return to work.

Mental health will always be a priority for this government, just as workers’ safety will always be a priority for this government. Last year was incredibly challenging for our state’s wellbeing and mental health; of that there is no doubt. As we tackled this new and complex global pandemic our lives changed significantly. Whether you are working from home or you have faced job losses, had ill health, felt isolated and alone or are dealing with the tragic loss of a loved one, mental health support has never been more important. And while we have been responding to the mental health needs of Victorians now, we are also in the process of undertaking a historic transformation of our whole mental health system through the royal commission. Their report is due to be tabled this week.

It may be hard to admit, but we know that our mental health system is not what it needs to be. Too many Victorians with mental illness and their families have been falling through the cracks, and too many Victorians have not been able to access the support they need when they need it most. That is why, as we begin this historic process to examine comprehensively and holistically our systems and to make a plan to do better, we need to look at reforms like this.

We have already seen the release of the interim report outlining priority recommendations and setting the foundation for system-wide reform, and we have already got to work on a lot of the recommendations in there. Reforming the way we approach mental health and how we respond to and legislate around it is something we are all invested in, and this bill delivers on a vital area of reform for mental health, and that is workplace mental health. It is good for workers, it is good for businesses, it is good for our community, and I commend it to the house.