On 11 January 2021, I filed a complaint with the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority - SIRA NSW. At the time, I followed the instructions on the SIRA NSW website.
I didn’t guess.
I didn’t improvise.
I went to the regulator’s own website and followed the instructions.
The SIRA NSW website was clear—at least on the surface.
If your employer failed to pass on workers compensation benefits, you were told to complain to SIRA NSW.
If the issue was with the insurer, you were directed to the Independent Review Office - IRO.
So that’s what I did.
I escalated.
I documented.
I lodged complaints with the bodies I was explicitly told were responsible.
What I did not understand—because no ordinary worker could reasonably understand—was that I was stepping into a fragmented system where accountability was split, blurred, and quietly avoided.
Keep that fragmentation in mind as I continue this story, because while I was being bounced between agencies, something else was happening in parallel.
The harm was escalating.
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Two Systems, No Owner
I later learned I was navigating two entirely different legal universes at once:
• Industrial relations
• Workers compensation
No one explained how they intersected.
No one explained where one stopped and the other began.
And critically—no one took responsibility for what happened in the gaps:
- My employer said the insurer was responsible.
- The insurer deflected.
- The union went silent.
- And the regulators… processed.
I was not met with protection. I was met with procedure.
At the very moment I was most vulnerable—injured, isolated, financially frightened—I was expected to act like a legal expert simply to survive.
I am not a lawyer. I am an information professional.
I could see the system was not designed for clarity—it was designed for separation.
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The Illusion of “Escalation”
Escalation sounds powerful, doesn’t it?
Level 1.
Level 2.
Reference numbers.
Acknowledgements.
But escalation without ownership is just movement without direction.
- I escalated while the harm continued.
- I escalated while my employer failed to comply.
- I escalated while my insurer delayed, withheld, and obstructed.
- I escalated while no return-to-work plan was provided.
- I escalated while my support network was dismantled.
And all the while, I was told—implicitly and explicitly—that I was in the wrong place.
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And Now There Are “Inspectors”
Now, years later, there is new language on the SIRA NSW website.
Inspectors.
Powers.
Enforcement.
On paper, it looks reassuring.
Inspectors can:
• Require information
• Enter workplaces
• Investigate compliance
• Enforce obligations under workers compensation legislation
But here is the question no one asks out loud:
Where were these powers when workers like me were reporting active, ongoing non-compliance?
Where were they when:
• Employers failed to cooperate in injury management?
• Insurers failed to ensure benefits were paid?
• Return-to-work obligations were ignored?
• Psychological harm was escalating, not stabilising?
If inspectors exist now, they existed in substance then—because the obligations existed then.
What changed was not the law. What changed was the framing.
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The Cost of Fragmentation
This is the part that matters most.
Systemic abuse does not usually happen because no rules exist.
It happens because responsibility is divided until no one feels accountable.
When a worker is told:
• “That’s an insurer issue”
• “That’s an employer issue”
• “That’s not our jurisdiction”
What they are really being told is:
Carry it yourself.
And I did—for far too long.
The injury was not just psychological. It was institutional.
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Why I’m Telling This Now
I am telling this story because clarity after the fact does not undo harm done in confusion.
I am telling it because regulatory websites are not neutral—they shape behaviour, expectations, and trust.
And I am telling it because no worker should be required to decode a fragmented system while their health, livelihood, and dignity are being stripped away in real time.
If inspectors are now part of the story, then the question that must finally be asked is this:
Who was responsible when I asked for help—and why was no one required to act?
Public power carries public responsibility.
And silence, delay, and deflection are not neutral acts.
(Documents 141 and 143).
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This SIRA NSW webpage is dated 27 November 2025:
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