The Betrayal of Compassion: When Those Who Promised Justice Turn Away

Why did a seriously injured whistleblower — the very man who helped expose the failures inside NSW’s workers’ compensation system — have to find out about Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s cruel reforms from his lawyer? That’s the telling point.

No call. No care. No acknowledgment. Just silence from the Treasurer who once courted Chris McCann relentlessly when he needed his intelligence to expose the icare scandal — but who now cannot even be bothered to ensure psychological support for the thousands of people whose lives will be shattered by the draconian changes he is pushing through the NSW Parliament.

In what universe does he live? He knew exactly what this campaign was doing to the injured — the humiliation, the fear, the despair — and did nothing. That isn’t leadership. That’s moral failure.

When whistleblower Chris McCann stepped forward in 2020, he did so not for power, nor politics, but principle. A former Victoria Police detective and former Head of Compliance at icare, McCann helped expose the multi-billion-dollar collapse inside NSW’s workers’ compensation system — the very system meant to protect injured workers.

Back then, Daniel Mookhey and the Labor opposition championed him. They stood shoulder to shoulder with a man who risked everything to bring truth to light. Today, Chris McCann is seriously psychologically injured. And those who once praised his courage now preside over reforms that will strip care and dignity from thousands just like him.

A System Built on Greed, Not Care

The government’s proposed reforms, now returning to Parliament — will cut long-term medical support for almost every psychologically injured worker in NSW. Out of more than 11,600 claims since 2013, only 54 people would meet the new threshold required to receive long-term medical payments.

That is 28 lives a year deemed “worthy” of care while thousands more are written off as fiscal liabilities.

These are not numbers on a spreadsheet. They are teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, tradies — human beings who broke down under the weight of trauma at work, and then were broken again by the system that promised to help them.

The Betrayal of Compassion

In opposition, Mookhey and Labor promised a fairer system. In government, they have turned silence into strategy.

For all the debate, not one Labor MP has stood in Parliament to say this simple thing:

Not one.

Yes — Abigail Boyd of the Greens has fought relentlessly for the injured. But where is the moral courage of those in power now? Where is the Treasurer who once called Chris McCann at all hours, seeking his guidance, documents to expose, when it served his political ambition yet cannot find the humanity to pick up the phone to check if the man who helped him is okay?

Where is the compassion of a government that claims to care for workers, yet designs legislation that punishes them for being hurt? Where is the Minister for icare, Sophie Cotsis, who once promised dignity but now defends cruelty as reform? She can't even answer correspondence.

It is betrayal, not only of a whistleblower, but of every injured worker who believed their pain would be met with care, not calculation.

The Cost of Silence

Psychological injury is not weakness. It is the price of service often paid by those who put their bodies, minds, and integrity on the line for others. When a government treats them as disposable, it betrays the very foundation of public trust.

Chris McCann’s voice in this video is not just a warning, it is a mirror. It shows us what happens when truth-tellers are used and discarded, when systems designed to care are hijacked by the logic of profit, and when political convenience is valued above human decency.

We Want Better

We want better from our politicians. This conduct by Mookhey is unacceptable. This is not a debating competition, it is about lives. About the people who built this state, who trusted the promise that if they were hurt, they would be cared for.

That promise has been broken. And there is a growing cohort who have watched this betrayal and conduct of this 'campaign' with horror. They will never forget. Never.