Systems
When Systems Collapse
Every system has a breaking point — the moment it can no longer hold the weight of the world it was built to serve.
Workers’ compensation is one of those systems.
Born in the early 1900s, it was designed for an industrial nation of physical labour and visible injury.
If you were hurt at work, the system would protect you.
That social contract no longer holds.
A System Out Of Time
Today’s workplaces are unrecognisable: insecure, digital, emotionally demanding.
Stress, burnout, and moral trauma now outnumber broken bones.
Yet the systems managing these injuries still treat them as anomalies.
Scholars call this systemic drift — when institutions keep running long after their purpose has eroded.
Governance experts describe bureaucratic entropy: when complexity and compliance create harm faster than help.
The signs are everywhere — delayed claims, algorithmic errors, collapsing trust, and exhausted case managers.
It’s not only the injured who are breaking. The system itself is in moral distress.
Why They’re All Failing
1. Design Misfit — Structures built for physical harm can’t process psychological injury.
2. Financialisation — Treasury logic now governs recovery.
3. Digital Displacement — Algorithms measure efficiency, not empathy.
4. Cultural Erosion — Fear of liability replaces duty of care.
5. Governance Fatigue — Endless “reform” means perpetual remediation.
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The Slow Violence Of Care
Across Australia and beyond, compensation systems are collapsing under their own contradictions.
Institutions once meant to protect now reproduce harm through indifference, data, and delay.
This is not the failure of a few officials — it’s the exhaustion of an entire worldview.
What happens when systems designed to heal begin to harm?
A Landmark Legal Battle Against Failed Systems
Adam Elisha's story demonstrates remarkable tenacity in his quiet determination to hold his employer accountable and expose WorkSafe's handling of his case. When insurers couldn't resolve his quest for medical expenses and weekly wages through simple correspondence, Adam took the matter to the Magistrate's Court of Victoria. His extraordinary journey involved simultaneously managing illness, navigating the complexities of WorkSafe's Workers' Compensation system, and pursuing his employer for damages and negligence once his impairment was established. The case concluded with mixed outcomes: at the High Court, Adam won on contract law—indeed, changed contract law by overturning a 115-year-old precedent—but lost on the duty of care action.
The court found that employers owe no duty of care to employees and injured workers, giving them considerable discretion in their actions. The case of Elisha v Vision Australia Ltd stands as a landmark decision in Australian legal history, where one individual's pursuit of justice led to significant changes that finally recognized workers' full rights under contract law.
