A Message to Mums and Dads: Why What’s Happening in Workers’ Compensation Should Terrify and Unite Us All

Most families never think about workers’ compensation.

Why would you?

You’re busy getting the kids to school, paying rising bills, juggling sport pickups, overtime shifts, ageing parents, and trying to hold on to a few hours of peace in a week that never stops.

But here is the truth nobody tells mums and dads:

If someone you love is injured at work, your entire life can collapse — not because of the injury, but because of the system that is supposed to help.

And this is why this story belongs to you.

Not to bureaucrats. Not to insurers.Not to politicians.

To you — the everyday families of Australia.

A Broken System Hidden in Plain Sight

Australia doesn’t have one workers’ compensation system. We have eleven.

Eleven sets of rules. Eleven ways to be denied. Eleven pathways for families to fall through.

Your rights depend on your postcode. Your treatment depends on which side of a border you were standing on when you were hurt. Your life can be upended because of an administrative decision made by someone who has never met you.

This is not a modern safety net. It is geographical roulette.

And families are paying the price.

Why This Matters to Every Household in the Country

When a loved one is hurt at work, you become:

• the unpaid carer

• the emotional support

• the appointment organiser

• the advocate

• the crisis manager

• the one holding the family together

Financial stress rises. Mental load increases.Relationships strain.Children feel the pressure. Hope shrinks.

In too many cases, the harm caused by the system is worse than the harm caused by the injury itself.

This isn’t rare.

It’s happening everywhere.

Australia Was Not Built to Withstand This Fragmentation

Our federation — the way we divided power between the Commonwealth and the states in 1901 — was never designed for modern injuries, modern workplaces or modern mental health challenges.

It was built for a world of steam trains and telegrams, not cross-border workforces, psychological injury, or insurer-controlled claims management.

And we are living with the consequences.

Even Whitlam Tried to Fix This — And Failed Because He Was Stopped

Most Australians don’t know this:

Gough Whitlam attempted to create a national workers’ compensation scheme in the 1970s.

One system. One standard. One level of care for every worker in the country.

He saw what we are living through now — that a country cannot function with 11 competing compensation regimes.

He was right.

But the 1975 Dismissal ended the reform, and the momentum was lost.

For decades, Australians have been told the fragmented system is “good enough.”

It isn’t.

It never was.

Standing at the Grave of Sir Henry Parkes — The Man Who Dreamed Australia Into a Nation

When we filmed Shattered at the grave of Sir Henry Parkes in Faulconbridge — the “Father of Australian Federation” — it struck me just how far we have drifted from the Australia he imagined.

Parkes didn’t fight for Federation so that ordinary families would be forced to navigate eleven different workers’ compensation schemes, each with different rules, thresholds, assessments and pathways. Although not conceived yet, Parkes dreamed of a united Nation.

He didn’t build this nation so that an injured worker’s future would have to depend on a border for care. He didn’t carry the dream of a united country so that insurers could decide who gets help and who doesn’t.

Standing there, behind iron fence, with the bushland light filtering through the trees, the question felt painfully clear:

Would the Father of Federation recognise the fractured, inconsistent, stressful system that injured Australian families are forced to endure today?

Why Mums and Dads Hold the Power

This system won’t change because bureaucrats decide it should.

It will change when mums and dads say:

• “This is not fair.”

• “This is not who we are.”

• “This could happen to anyone.”

• “This needs to be fixed now.”

Ordinary families have far more influence than policy papers ever will.

When parents understand the scale of the harm, when they see this could happen to their husband, their daughter, their neighbour, their mum, the conversation shifts.

That’s what scares insurers.That’s what forces governments. That’s what creates reform.

Why We Made Shattered

Shattered is not a film for politicians. It’s not for lawyers. It’s not for the insurance industry.

It is for you —the everyday families who deserve to know how the system truly works, before it ever touches your life.

It shows:

• the harm

• the denial

• the surveillance

• the suicides

• the silence

• the institutional fear

• the human cost of a federation that has failed to modernise

Families deserve the truth — not when it’s too late, but now, while knowledge can still protect them.

Don’t Look Away

No family in Australia should ever be destroyed by the system meant to protect them.

Not yours. Not anyone’s.

And that’s why mums and dads matter most.

Your understanding. Your voice. Your refusal to look away. Your willingness to say: “This affects us all.”

This is how movements expand. This is how nations change. This is how harm becomes impossible to ignore.

We can build a better, kinder, safer system. One that cares for people the way Chifley believed it should. One that Whitlam tried to create. One worthy of the Australia we tell our children we are.

But it starts with you —in your home, at your kitchen table, and in your conversations.

Because when mums and dads understand what’s happening, the path forward becomes clear:

We won’t let another generation be harmed like this. Not in our name. Not anymore.