Administrative and scheme delivery changes
SIRA progressed several initiatives aimed at strengthening scheme performance including:
- Launched SIRA 2028, a three‑year strategic plan focused on improving workers compensation outcomes through customer‑centred, intelligence‑led and risk‑based regulation.
- Commenced a functional review in January 2025 to ensure SIRA’s structure and operating model support effective scheme stewardship, clearer regulatory accountability and better use of scheme data.
- Delivered extensive supervision and compliance programs, including insurer audits, health provider oversight and targeted employer compliance activities.
- Strengthened regulatory oversight through enhanced fraud referral processes and early‑intervention engagement with insurers at key recovery milestones (4 and 13 weeks).
- Continued early‑support services across personal injury schemes, including expanded outreach via Workers Compensation Assist and CTP Assist.
- Permanently established Workers Compensation Assist, providing clear, accessible information for injured workers.
Policy developments
- Ongoing reviews of the NSW Workers Compensation Scheme, including the McDougall Review, the 2023 Law and Justice Review, and governance reviews continued to identify opportunities to improve system performance and worker outcomes.
- A comprehensive review of claims management identified opportunities to improve outcomes for workers, particularly those with psychological injuries, and to reduce administrative burden through better‑balanced regulatory approaches.
- Early intervention program of work with insurers to improve insurer early intervention practices and outcomes. The program successfully embedded risk assessment for delayed recovery and return to work as the foundation for claims management for all workers compensation insurers.
- In July 2025, SIRA published the findings of its Review of Under Insurance in the NSW Workers Compensation Scheme.
Legislative amendments
- The Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Reform and Modernisation) Bill 2025 1 was progressed. It aimed to amend workers compensation legislation and related legislation to implement reforms to, and modernise the operation of, the workers compensation scheme.
- The Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Firefighters) Act 2025 was passed. It strengthens protections for firefighters by expanding the range of cancers presumed to be work‑related under the Workers Compensation Act 1987. The reform ensures eligible full‑time, part‑time, and volunteer firefighters have improved access to timely workers compensation benefits when diagnosed with specific cancers linked to firefighting duties.
1 The Bill passed NSW Parliament on 4 February 2026 and was assented to on 11 February 2026, after the reporting period for this report.