Making of Shattered
Episode 1
Origins of Control
Launching
Episode 2
The Punishment of
Money
Launching
Episode 3
Doctor
Doctor
Launching
Episode 4
Royal Commissions Examined
In Production
Is It Fit For Purpose?
Workers’ compensation in Australia was created to fund treatment and replace lost income after workplace injury. Over time, it has evolved into a complex framework operating at the intersection of health care, insurance, law and public administration. When filmmaker Kathie Melocco experienced her own workplace injury, she expected to enter the health system. Instead, she encountered a process shaped by legislation, impairment thresholds and administrative decision-making. That experience — and the stories of families across Australia — led to a three-year national investigation. Shattered asks a measured but urgent question:
After one hundred years, is the system still fit for purpose?
Elevating Voices
Updates on Systemic Issues in Workers' Compensation:
A claimant successfully highlighted the intersectionality of financial systems by exposing how individuals on workers' compensation face discrimination when attempting to access loans and other financial products. This particularly impacts those experiencing financial hardship while unable to work.
Another case brought attention to statutory harm caused by government policies that don't require insurers to act in good faith when handling workers' compensation claims.
Evidence has emerged showing that Independent Medical Examinations (IMEs) function primarily as medico-legal reports rather than patient care assessments. These reports frequently contradict treatment plans and health priorities for injured workers.
Multiple complaints have revealed inadequate investigation procedures by regulatory bodies, highlighting gaps in oversight and accountability.
Workers' compensation cases have demonstrated how the system routinely overlooks the crucial role of families in recovery and return-to-work processes, despite their essential support function.
System-wide technology issues have been documented across both Workers' Compensation and General Insurance, showing how fragmented computer systems create catastrophic impacts for claimants during critical life moments when they most need support.
Note: This film exists because many others have been doing the hard work long before the camera was ever switched on. We acknowledge the advocates, campaigners, lived-experience leaders, and frontline supporters whose ongoing efforts remain essential to change. We sincerely thank Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson for the vast international network of workers' compensation experts she has facilitated introductions to so that our research has been as comprehensive as possible.
We also acknowledge Vasalia Govender and the work of the Injured Workers' Support Team for their valuable contribution.
Expert Led
Our work has involved speaking to hundreds of doctors, claims managers, rehabilitation providers, insurers, financial institutions and lawyers. All say the system has been built to harm. A special episode of Shattered is devoted to speaking with the experts who all share their opinions on what needs to be done. It is a finance system delivering health and that is not compatible to return to work or recovery. Lives have been shattered for decades with no accountability for the harm that has been done to tens of thousands of injured people.
Pictured Right: Dr. Paul Phillips, Psychologist & Independent Expert speaks to the critical role of the system is to get the mental health diagnosis right in the first place. Too many people suffer and are harmed he says because of inaccurate diagnoses in this system. We also discuss medical misogyny in mental health.
Research Driven
GIDII Advocacy has spent months trawling legislation, reviewing parliamentary inquiry submissions and academic research. What we have found is a chaotic system that refuses to enact recommendations that will address the harm, over politicization of the health of injured people that denies them care and a system where money is going to everyone except where it should go, and that is to the injured to get them back to work and to health.
Interesting Fact: The origins of the early computer Algorithm Colossus developed by the Government Insurance Office in the late 1980's was actually found in the NSW Parliament's library archive. Read about it here.
Town Hall Gatherings
GIDII Advocacy has traversed around the State, several times. From kitchen tables to community cafes across Australia, we've looked into the eyes of those shattered by this broken system. We've held the hands of mothers who can no longer hold their children, listened to workers stripped of their dignity, and witnessed families crumbling under the weight of medical bills and bureaucratic indifference. These aren't just stories – they're the devastating reality of an antiquated system that continues to destroy Australian lives while those in power look away.
Fact: Mental Health Claims in Workers' Compensation Systems have been very poorly administered by insurers for way too long, causing untold suffering and life long harm. There is an urgent need for Workers' Compensation Systems to evolve into safe havens and comply with the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Educating Policy Makers
We have been the thorn in policy makers and systems' administrators sides for months. Change is messy. Change takes courage and change can be uncomfortable. We make no apology for demanding that sick, vulnerable people who are unable to advocate for themselves deserve care and respect, not abuse.
Pictured Left: We hosted Ken Feinberg at NSW Parliament House. Ken is widely regarded as an international expert on compensation systems. His book "What is life Worth' was later told in the Netflix Movie 'Worth' starring Michael Keaton. Ken spoke on the need for compensation systems to be efficient and to get the money where it needs to go, fast.
Educating the Media
Beyond the fleeting headlines in Workers' Compensation coverage lies a predictable pattern: tales of government neglect and heartless policies, punctuated by personal stories of suffering. But this narrative barely scratches the surface of a systemic catastrophe.
The scale of this abuse is unprecedented and it has been going on for decades. It has been compounded and spread globally by a computer program introduced in the late 1980's early 90s to stop claims leakage.
This isn't merely mismanagement – it's an atrocity spanning generations, destroying countless lives.
This abuse is at scale and incentivizes others to harm.
It is one of the biggest scandals this country has ever known, a population of people who all they did was get injured at work, only to be punished, humiliated, degraded and forgotten by society and trapped in a maze of bureaucratic entanglement from which there is no recovery.
Pictured Right: On International Workers' Memorial Day 2025 we hosted 'Heal & Hope' a day to acknowledge the suffering and the need for restitution. James Hartley - Head of Disputes at UK Legal Firm Freeths joined us. He led the Mr Bates V The Post Office litigation in the UK, widely regarded as the greatest miscarriage of justice in the UK. Watch his talk here.
