Matthew McDowall
Moving forward, he found employment at RiskCover WA which involved public liability claims, motor claims assessments, workers compensation claims and government damaged assets. This also required a significant understanding of The Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act, Public Liability Law and workings of the District Court. This gave Matthew an insight into how government departments are managed and the enormous amount of work and planning it takes to run an effective government organisation. It also exposed a lack of funding in these areas, which has caused many of today’s problems such as injury, workplace fatality and damage to public property. Privileged factual investigation showed why government funding was either spent in the wrong areas or how a shortage of funds failed to provide a safe work environment. Matthew believes this remains a major concern today and the reason why Western Australia requires more federal funds for our core essential services. He says that our $30 billion state debt does not help to improve services, mainly caused by the lack of our fair share of GST, fuel excise and infrastructure.
In 2001, Matthew moved into the Private Insurance Sector working as a Supervisor/Technical Advisor. He says that investigations into workplace accidents exposed lack of funding in aged care, private hospitals, apprentice training, agriculture and many more sectors. The issues we have today are the same issues we had 20 years ago, which shows how federal funding has been deficient for the state of WA for far too long. In 2012, Matthew became a Manager for Australia Post WA, involved in the Comcare federal compensation sector. During that time, we made excellent in-roads into reducing injuries in the workplace, reducing the amount of injury claims by a significant 25%. Thereafter, Australia Post decided to centralise the management to the East Coast; yet another concern for WA with the relocation of Commonwealth public servants to the East Coast. That decision reduced our rightful workforce in WA. The insurance industry has given Matthew the opportunity to work on various industry panels providing input into legislative changes for Workers’ Compensation in 2011 and 2018. As a result, dependants are now adequately compensated for a loved one’s deceased in work accidents, increasing the statutory compensation by 250% and bringing this into line with other state jurisdictions resulting in a fair share for dependants.
Presently, a qualified insurance broker, Matthew’s knowledge allows him to provide technical advice in workers’ compensation for a private insurance company. His role involves negotiation to resolve difficult disputes, which may involve Conciliation and Arbitration conference at Work Cover WA. Occasionally, Matthew attends the District Court for common law claims where workers are seeking compensation. His role also involves providing technical support in other state jurisdiction, including training for employers and rehabilitation providers.
Matthew has had an interest in politics from an early age but has never been drawn toward any major party. He attempted to set up his own party several years ago, called the Greater Western Party. That party shared similar views to the WA Party, hence the reason why Matthew was drawn towards the Western Australia Party.
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