COMPLIANCE AND REGULATION 1.0

Regulatory differences across states create challenges for employers and insurers in implementing a consistent worker’s compensation strategy. This panel will explore how organizations can align their policies, streamline compliance, and establish best practices that benefit both employers and insurers.

• How do national and state-level regulations impact the consistency of worker’s compensation policies for employers and
insurers?
• Discussing the biggest compliance challenges organisations face in multi-state operations, and how can they be mitigated?
• Discussing what role technology and data analytics play in improving regulatory compliance and best practice adoption?
• How can collaboration between insurers, employers, and policymakers drive more unified and effective worker’s compensation frameworks?

INVITED:

DARREN PARKER
Executive Director, State Insurance
Regulatory Authority (SIRA)

In this panel, industry leaders unpack the crucial role of early intervention in workers’ compensation—and why its success hinges not only on process, but on people. As organisations grow and evolve, so do the complexities in how injuries are managed. This discussion explores how clarity in roles and responsibilities, combined with a proactive leadership culture, ensures early
intervention is not just a policy, but a lived practice. From the frontline to C-suite, we’ll explore how expectations are
communicated, how responsibility is shared, and how governed processes are built to reflect real-world dynamics.

Q. In your experience, what does successful early intervention look like in the first 60 minutes or 24 hours, and who exactly should own that responsibility?
Purpose: To Unpack where the process begins, and clarifies who leads the charge at each point.

Q. How do you define and communicate the roles of regional managers, site leaders, and the central claims team in the early stages of an injury—and where do you see the gaps most commonly arise?
Purpose: To target clarity of responsibilities and challenges in communication and execution.

Q. What role should senior leadership play in setting the tone for a culture of early intervention? Can top-down leadership tangibly impact outcomes for injured workers?
Purpose: Ties leadership accountability directly to cultural and performance outcomes.

Q. How can organisations ensure their formal policies and governed processes reflect the actual lived experience of injured workers and managers? What’s the feedback loop between process owners and the people using those processes?
Purpose: To bridges policy and practice, highlighting governance with adaptability and feedback.

INVITED PANELISTS:

MICHELLE BARRATT
Head of Innovation, Arriba Group Regulatory body, TBC

JASON PERIN
Safety, Wellbeing & Injury Management, Keyton

EMMA HAYES
National Operations Lead, Workcom

BETHANIE SUTTON
Early Intervention Manager, Client Services,
Gallagher Bassett

10:50 MORNING TEA & NETWORKING

This session led by Natalie will illustrate how Viva Energy Retail scaled its workers’ compensation framework following rapid
acquisition and growth. Natalie will share practical strategies for integrating diverse injury management practices and organisational cultures and demonstrate the importance of early intervention and
psychological support in injury management. Natalie will offer a roadmap for empowering operational leaders to take shared responsibility for workplace safety and recovery.

• Navigating workforce expansion - Viva Energy’s journey from 1,400 to 15,000 employees
• Creating scalable policies and procedures for workers’ compensation
• Acquisitions of Coles Express and On the Run: Insight on impact of systems, culture, and workforce management
• Adopting and adapting Coles Express’s "First 60 Minutes" ethos
• Creating a compassionate response to injury across diverse entities
• Aligning policy, compliance, and return-to-work across self-insured and insurer-managed states
• Training and upskilling regional and site managers to drive active participation

NATALIE MARYA
National Workers Compensation Manager,
Viva Energy Retail

PSYCHO SAFETY

Psychological injury claims are on the rise and this session will assess the impact of psychosocial factors on claims and recovery
and what strategies can be adopted for early intervention in workplace mental health issues and the legal implications and evolving responsibilities of employers. Dave Burrough has over 17 years’ experience in psycho safety and how work influences
psychological outcomes. This session will delve deep into:

• Understanding how workplace mental health issues translate into compensation claims.
• Learn early intervention strategies to mitigate psychological injury claims.
• Gain insights into your responsibilities and best practices as employers.

DAVE BURROUGHS
Chief Mental Health Officer, Westpac Group

12.40 Networking Lunch

With increasing regulatory focus on psychological safety and mental health, organizations must stay ahead of compliance requirements while fostering a supportive work environment. This discussion will address evolving legislation, employer obligations, and the future of regulation in this space

• How have regulatory requirements around psychological safety and WHS evolved in recent years, and what’s on the horizon?
• Discussing the key legal and financial implications for employers who fail to meet new mental health and WHS regulations?
• How can employers effectively implement regulatory changes without disrupting business operations?
• What best practices can be adopted from regulatory frameworks to improve psychological safety compliance?

PANELLISTS:

JOANNE BARTLEY
Injury Prevent Manager, iCare NSW

PEGGY CHEONG
WHS Commissioner, WorkSafe ACT

With a stronger regulatory focus on psychosocial risks, businesses must adapt to new standards that recognise the impact of
workplace stress, bullying, and mental health on workers’ compensation claims. This session will explore recent legislative shifts, strategies for managing psychosocial risks, and best practices for fostering a mentally healthy workplace that minimises compensation claims and supports long-term workforce wellbeing.

• What proactive steps can be taken to better understand the business, legal, and cultural imperatives driving the shift toward proactive psychosocial risk management?
• What practical strategies would you give for identifying and mitigating psychosocial risks in the workplace?
• Do you have any real-world evidence or case study examples you could give where organisations have successfully integrated mental health and wellbeing into their workers’ compensation strategies?

PANELLISTS:

KARLI EDGERTON
Manager, Health & Wellbeing, Eagers Automotive

CRYSTAL HORNSEY
Workers Compensation Claims Specialist, UBT
Australia and New Zealand

TESSA BAILEY
CEO and Principal Psychologist, OPUS Centre for Psychosocial Risk

15.00 AFTERNOON TEA

INNOVATION - REVOLUTIONISING CLAIMS
PROCESSING

This session will touch on how to apply data to optimise care navigation for individual workers. We will assess claims patterns and
the correlation and the impact of data to better stratify risk.
• Explore data’s role in personalised recovery.
• Understand how data can improve injury support outcomes.
• Gain insights from real-world data-driven strategies to support the customisation of care models

RYAN GALLAGHER
Head of Data, AI & Research, Honeysuckle Health

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION

This insight session will focus on how leaders can embed safety and well-being into workplace culture to engage employees in injury prevention initiatives and discuss the role of proactive leadership in reducing compensation claims.

• Define leadership's role in injury prevention
• From Safety-I to Safety-II: Why the shift from reactive to proactive safety models is critical for psychosocial risk management.
• Pre-empting Harm, Not Just Managing It: Strategies for early identification and prevention of psychological injuries in the
workplace.
• Building holistic, cross-functional approaches that embed mental health into safety and injury processes.
• Leveraging both qualitative and quantitative data to assess emerging psychosocial risks.
• A review of psychosocial safety regulations and what organisations must do to move beyond baseline compliance.
• Failing forward: Why many organisations miss the early warning signs of mental health claims—and how to fix it.
• Practical steps for leaders to create psychologically safe environments that support wellbeing and performance. What are
your best practices for fostering a safety-first culture

NIRU TYAGI
WHS Consultant, Kaizen Safety Practitioner,
Queensland Police Service

Drawing from a 24-year career in military aviation and safety leadership, this session explores how lessons from high-risk environments can transform organisational safety and wellbeing strategies. With a focus on human factors, non-technical skills, and
systems thinking, the session challenges the traditional, reactive, compliance-driven approach to safety. Instead, it advocates for
proactive leadership, better decision-making, and creating cultures where the preconditions to harm are addressed—before an incident ever occurs.

KEY TALKING POINTS:

• Applying lessons from military aviation—like crew resource management and human performance limitations—to corporate
safety.
• The critical role of leadership, communication, and decision-making in preventing harm.
• Why focusing solely on legislation misses the systemic factors that contribute to injuries and incidents.
• Identifying organisational and personal preconditions (fatigue, stress, pressure, resourcing) that often precede incidents.
• Ask “Why,” Not Just “Who” or “What”: Shifting safety investigations from blame to understanding root causes.
• Overcoming fear of liability and encouraging psychological safety for early intervention.
• Practical ways to improve safety outcomes by asking the right questions and redesigning systems, not just processes.

NATALEE JOHNSTON
Director, Skillfull Decisions

Chair’s closing remarks

17.30-18:00 Networking drinks reception