A $222 million blowout in the unfunded liability of the South Australian scheme has created more headaches for the government and businesses struggling to pay growing premiums.
The latest actuarial figures to December 31 show the unfunded liability has grown from $952m to $1.174bn in just six months. The unfunded liability was $55m in June 2001.
The state-based WorkCover schemes oversee the compensation of employees injured in workplace accidents.
An audit by the NSW Auditor-General in November found the NSW WorkCover scheme had a deficit of $2.4bn.
The report said the deficit grew by $900m in the year to June 30 as workers found new ways to exploit the scheme, which struggled under the weight of losses already sustained during the global financial crisis. The South Australian opposition finance spokesman, Rob Lucas, said yesterday that Labor's management of WorkCover had been an "unmitigated disaster".
"Employers are still paying the highest levies in the nation and the scheme is suffering from the worst return-to-work figures in the nation," Mr Lucas said.
"When the Labor government introduced their controversial amendments to the legislation in 2008 they claimed their actuarial advice was the scheme would be fully funded within five to six years. It is clear this will be yet another Labor broken promise. Labor can't lay all the blame on global economic conditions, because for most of the past 10 years there was strong national economic growth, yet the unfunded liability rose year after year."
SA Treasurer Jack Snelling yesterday said the underlying performance of WorkCover was still strong. "The reasons for an increase in the unfunded liability is because of reduced earnings on assets due to global economic factors as well as a reduction in the discount rate," he said.
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