If you do not agree with the proposed changes to compensation laws, let elected politicians know you want to keep your common law rights.
Phone or email key politicians at the contacts below and tell them to make compensation fair and keep it fair!
ALP:
Chief Minister
Jon Stanhope
p: (02)6205 0104
e: stanhope@act.gov.au
Industrial Relations Minister
Katy Gallagher
p: (02)6205 0840
e: gallagher@act.gov.au
Opposition Industrial Relations Minister
Vicki Dunne
p: (02)62050283
e: vicki.dunne@parliament.act.gov.au
Greens:
Shane Rattenbury
p:(02)62050005
e: rattenbury@parliament.act.gov.au
Amanda Bresnan
p: (02) 6205 0130
e: bresnan@parliament.act.gov.au
Meredith Hunter
p: (02) 6205 0106
e: hunter@parliament.act.gov.au
The other thing that you can do is tell your family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues about these legislative changes.
The proposed amendment to the ACT’s CTP legislation is a joke when taking into account my personal circumstances. Firstly, my choice of transport is by motorcycle. The Minister states that one of the outcomes from the amendment to the legislation will be cheaper CTP premiums. Well compared to NSW, my existing CTP premiums here in the ACT are already cheaper – in a number of instances by at least $200!
So, saving a further $50 or more on the premium is not going to compare to the potential tens of thousands of dollars I could lose by not being able to be compensated for pain and suffering. Something which I am all too familiar with since being hit by a car while riding my motorcycle back in 2009. The car driver made an illegal turn on a roundabout and the outcome was a badly broken left leg (2 plates, 16 screws), a bruised lung, five broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and permanent nerve damage to my left foot. Added to this list of injuries was an infection to the wound site that resulted in the leg needing to have a large area of tissue removed and part of my calf muscle used to fill the hole that was then covered with a skin graft. The last operation that I had – arthroscopic work on both the knee and ankle of the left leg resulted in a DVT – you dont know what pain is until you’ve suffered a DVT. Fortunately for me my accident occured under the current CTP legislation and I will be compensated for pain and suffering. But having gone through all that I have over the last 18 months, I can’t adequately put into words the anger at the injustice of someone suffering as I have and not being able to have that suffering compensated.