In view of the engagement with our community, following our analysis of the Swiss nightclub fire, Terry Jackson and I explore how we believe the current regulatory requirements in some jurisdictions are inadequate to protect the life of the occupiers. I hope that most people, and certainly those of us in the general insurance industry are aware of the legal requirement to have smoke alarms […]
Please help make this year’s Mansfield Awards the best ever!
The 2024 Mansfield Awards for Claims Excellence are just over 3 months away and we could really do with your help with ensuring the best of the best win. If you have had a claim yourself or are an adviser who has had a client or clients have a claim, we would really appreciate your taking a few minutes to rate the claims service. To […]
Update/Correction on Jobkeeper payments under NSW Workers’ Compensation rules
Yesterday, I posted an article that included my disappointment that businesses were potentially being penalised by having to pay WorkCover premiums on JobKeeper payments to workers who were not in fact working. This being brought to my attention by an experienced insurance broker. The original source was this notice on the icare website. I am pleased to advise that the icare website appears to have […]
One area we do not want to follow the United States
With so much of what happens in the United States finding its way to Australia, one statistic worries me and should be of concern to government in that country. That is the life expectancy in the US has fallen every year for the last 3 years. Only Mexico has this decline with the rest of the world enjoying increasing life expectancy. I was not aware […]
Falling Tools a risk that can be greatly reduced
Yesterday on the news, one of the reports was the tragic death of a 38 year old construction worker who fell from a 7 storey building. With harnesses, safety railings, safety officers and more you have to ask how can this still be happening. What is not reported on as much is tools, bolts and building materials being dropped by workers while working at elevation. […]
Why I feel let down by Victorian WorkCover
The tragic events surrounding the crane dropping its load and killing a worker and seriously injuring another brings back the frustration I experienced when trying to deal with the builder constructing a high rise apartment block next to our Melbourne office. Having seen the results of tilt slab panels being dropped from cranes around Australia and even just falling over once erected I tried to […]
Blog Question: Worker’s Compensation Cover due to Terrorism
Following on from yesterday’s post I received this question by email. Hi Prof. Allan Please advise if yesterday hostage exercise was an act of terrorism and if some of the hostages being nearby office workers were in the cafe to purchase a coffee would they be covered for a workers compensation claim in the case of an injury? Please advise? Regards Salosh [surname and email […]
Reduction in WorkCover Premiums in Victoria = Good News for Business
I have just been copied in on a media release from the Assistant Treasurer of Victoria, The Hon Gordon Rich-Phillips MLC. Two things caught my attention. The first was that the Victorian Government announced a two per cent reduction to WorkCover premiums for 2014/15, which will save Victorian businesses $40 million a year and see the average WorkCover premium fall to 1.72 per cent of […]
TIO Shows Great Social Responsibility – Well Done!
The media and our politicians love to knock the insurance industry (Bill Shorten was at it again this week) and yet so many insurance companies, brokers and others in the Insurance Industry do great things over and pay out billions of dollars in claims and put people’s lives back together. Much of the extra work goes into community initiatives that really benefit society and take the pressure […]
New Laws on Workplace OH&S
The topic of ladder safety leads me nicely to the next topic for this week: the upcoming Australian laws affecting workplace health and safety. Many business owners/Insureds should consider what they need to do to prepare for the upcoming legislative changes. Queensland, NSW and the ACT have already implemented changes and the other states and territories are expected to do the same very shortly. The […]