Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the decision of the Queensland Attorney-General to introduce as contained in the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, a permanent impairment threshold of more than 5% that must be met by injured Queensland workers before access to common law damages becomes available; and the process by which the decision was made to introduce the amendments.  The introduction of this threshold unnecessarily limits the rights of all Queensland employees and is in contrast to the recommendation made by the Finance and Administration Committee's report, in review of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003, tabled in Parliament on 23 May 2013.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to remove the more than 5% permanent impairment threshold contained in the newly amended section 237 of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 and retrospectively allow all injured Queensland employees, affected by the amended legislation, as mentioned above, access to common law damages.