How Withheld Workers’ Compensation Entitlements Reached My Superannuation - October 2022

By October 2022, the withholding of workers’ compensation payments and RTW entitlements had reached the retirement savings I had spent my working life building.

My self-managed superannuation fund had placed a $30,000 deposit on an investment property in Western Australia. I had planned to buy it outright, without a loan, and have the rental income flow into my fund. A rental appraisal dated 5 October 2022 estimated that the property could be marketed at $430 to $440 a week. That was an estimate, not guaranteed rent, but it shows the retirement income I was working to establish.

I could no longer complete the purchase as planned. In an email to a finance broker on 10 October 2022, I recorded that I had taken approximately $290,000 from my SMSF to save my home. I had also sold my Melbourne investment property at a substantial loss. A security swap was the only option I had to settle because of public university employer FRAUD! I explained that I had intended to buy the property outright before I was forced to draw on those funds. 

That’s what the workers compensation fraud, committed by both a powerful public university employer and its specialised insurer caused, in retaliation for requesting a safe work environment. SafeWork NSW and SIRA NSW did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to enforce compliance and stop this act of FRAUD! It was much easier to believe the offenders, ignore the evidence put before them, and just blame the victim. The public deserve answers from both these regulators and the current ministers responsible. 

The correspondence shows me trying to rescue the purchase. On 4 October 2022, a broker introduced me to another broker to explore a loan within the SMSF and a possible refinance of my home to return money to the fund. On 6 October 2022, the second broker asked whether I was receiving workers’ compensation or other income that attracted superannuation contributions. The answer was NO. I’M A VICTIM OF FRAUD by my university employer and its specialised insurer, Catholic Church Insurance. APRA now has these financial records of damage caused by the fraud. 

I was forced to make an income protection claim while trying to sort out CCI’s bad faith conduct, but a commercial product doesn’t have the same protections that a statutory scheme was supposed to have. 

See 

http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2026/04/two-insurers-one-injury-only-one-did.html

AND 

http://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2026/07/i-was-fighting-for-more-than-my-job-may.html

The broker’s preliminary calculation suggested that the proposed rent alone might support a loan of about $155,000, subject to further information and lender assessment.

I was seeking finance for a property I had intended to purchase without borrowing, in my superannuation. That change was a consequence of having to use my own retirement savings while my statutory workers’ compensation payments and entitlements were being withheld. 

THAT’S FRAUD, SIRA NSW! FINALLY DO YOUR JOB AS THE REGULATOR RESPONSIBLE AND STOP THE FRAUD! 

The records also show the pressure I was under. I initially told the broker the purchase price was $229,000. On 11 October, she queried that figure against the signed contract, which she said showed $327,500. On 14 October, I acknowledged that I had confused the figure with an amount involved in saving my home. I was exhausted, traumatised and trying to manage my home, a property settlement, my superannuation and the ongoing workers’ compensation offences, all at the same time. ALONE. 

 While SIRA NSW chose to do this:  

On 3 October, the developer had notified purchasers that an unexpected retaining-wall requirement would delay the release of titles. The delay gave me more time to try to find a solution, but it didn’t return the money to my SMSF. I ultimately lost the $30,000 deposit, the capital I had intended to put into the property, and the opportunity for its rental income to build my retirement fund.

Australian Catholic University and Catholic Church Insurance withheld workers’ compensation benefits and entitlements, and I’m calling for an independent investigation into alleged workers’ compensation fraud. Those allegations require findings based on the full evidence. The October emails document something immediate and concrete: while I was seeking the payments and cooperation the statutory scheme required, I was using my own assets to protect my home and desperately trying to save my retirement investment.

This is the snowball effect. Payments and entitlements owed to me were withheld. I drew on my superannuation to save my home. I sold another investment property at a substantial loss. Then I couldn’t complete an SMSF purchase I had planned to make outright, and I lost the $30,000 deposit and its potential rental return.

I had worked for decades in higher education, paid my HECS debt, and built my retirement funds so I could provide for myself. When I needed the protection of a statutory scheme, I was left funding the consequences myself. 

Government bodies and elected representatives had opportunities to hear what was happening. I want the conduct of Catholic Church Insurance and ACU governance investigated, the withheld entitlements addressed, and the resulting damage to my superannuation accounted for.

I cannot accept further threats of punishment for financial consequences caused by the withholding of my statutory entitlements. I want my payments, my entitlements and what this has cost my retirement returned to me. 

It’s fraud. 

Source: contemporaneous record of events - Documents 589-592.