Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:38): I would like to thank the member for her question. She has always taken an interest in people in life who are doing it hard. I think it is important that this House notes that if you are unlucky enough to be injured at work in Australia you had better hope there is a Labor administration in charge of your safety laws and your compensation. Let me use, for example, the case of John. John works in the Territory at a remote mine site. In November 2009 he was injured in a motor vehicle rollover. He fractured his C2 disc, dislocated C6-C7 in his vertebrae, was airlifted to Darwin, then to Adelaide for immediate surgery. He received rehab after surgery, returned to Darwin and, thankfully, has returned to full-time work with the rehabilitation and support he has received under Comcare. He has received incapacity payments, medical and specialist treatment, surgery, medication, travel by air ambulance, aids and appliances, rehab assistance and physiotherapy. He continues to receive this under a federal Labor government. He can receive incapacity payments if, despite his best efforts to return to work, he remains unable to return to work in the future due to his injury. He can apply for and, indeed, receive permanent impairment payment. If you have to have an injury, which is bad, at least have it under a Labor government. But there is an obstacle— Opposition members: This is pathetic. Mr SHORTEN: and if people from the opposition call out 'pathetic', wait till they hear what their New South Wales Liberals are doing. Let us take the real-world case— Opposition members interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: We don't need to exaggerate. We don't need to make up tall tales. We just tell the truth here. Opposition members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms AE Burke ): Order! The minister will resume his seat. The minister has the call and will be heard in silence. Mr SHORTEN: Ashley is a nurse. She injured her back in 1998 moving a patient. She tried to go back to work and in 2004, again at work, exacerbated the back injury. She has struggled with chronic pain for the last 14 years. Without the support she received under the old workers comp system in New South Wales she would have had to retire, she would have been on the DSP, and people would have given up on her. Unfortunately, now she lives in New South Wales with a Liberal government. Where she is injured, unless she passes the 20 per cent whole person impairment test—which is unlikely—that is it in 12 months time: no medical help and put on the scrapheap. What this means for the 600,000 Australians who get injured is: you cannot trust the New South Wales Liberals to look after you if you get injured at work. Look at those people opposite—they think it does not happen. Six hundred thousand people get injured, and you cannot trust the Liberals if you are injured at work in New South Wales. What is more, you cannot trust the federal Liberals because they will not rule out doing the same thing nationally. They do not have an IR policy or a workers comp policy and we do not trust them to look after workers. (Time expired)