The New South Wales State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) has appointed Megan Main, former chief executive of New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), to lead the regulator as the state’s workers compensation scheme confronts its lowest 13-week return-to-work rate in nine years and a psychological injury cost trajectory that has nearly doubled in five years. Main is scheduled to commence the role on October 12, 2026, SIRA announced August 14, 2026.
Main succeeds Samantha Taylor PSM, who has served as acting chief executive since June 9, 2026, following Taylor’s move from the Independent Review Office, where she had been appointed independent review officer from February 2025. The appointment ends a period of interim leadership at the regulator during active legislative change across all three schemes it oversees: workers compensation, compulsory third party (CTP) motor accident insurance, and home building compensation (HBC).
Main steps into a regulator operating under a published three-year strategy and a defined set of regulatory priorities for the current financial year. SIRA’s Regulatory Priorities 2025-26, published in July 2025, set three overarching themes: strengthening the regulatory environment, leading strategic collaboration to improve scheme outcomes, and taking intelligence-led regulatory action. The document states a principal objective of SIRA is to promote the efficiency and viability of the NSW insurance and compensation schemes.
Within that framework, SIRA has identified insurer claims practices and return-to-work outcomes as active priority areas, with the authority’s SIRA 2028 strategy – launched in early 2025 – describing its ambition to be a customer-centred, intelligence-led, risk-based regulator. That stated philosophy has some parallels with ACC’s Turnaround Plan, which focuses on improving rehabilitation performance, getting injured New Zealanders back to work and independence, and resetting ACC’s approach to claims management. Under Main’s leadership, ACC’s turnaround programme placed greater emphasis on earlier intervention, more effective case management, and working with employers to support injured people’s return to work.
SIRA’s own analysis, published in its Return to Work Roadmap 2026-28, shows 13-week return-to-work rates declined from 88% in 2016-17 to 79% in 2024-25 – representing 45,680 more people not working at the 13-week mark than would be expected under earlier performance levels. Psychological injury claims are driving a disproportionate share of costs. In a March 2025 ministerial statement to NSW Parliament, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey confirmed that psychological claims account for 12% of total workers compensation claims in NSW but 38% of total costs, and that the average cost of a psychological injury claim rose from $146,000 in 2019-20 to $288,542 in 2024-25. NSW government reform materials confirm that 50% of workers with a psychological injury return to work within a year, compared with 95% of workers with a physical injury.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), in its May 2026 Workers’ Compensation Policy Paper, placed those figures in national context: total NSW claim payments increased from $4,580,194 in 2021-22 to $6,160,696 in 2024-25, and the ICA called for a coordinated effort involving governments, regulators, insurers, and health professionals to address psychological injury claims and other complex claims. The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA), appearing before the NSW Legislative Council’s Public Accountability and Works Committee during the reform legislative process, noted the scheme’s deteriorating financial position and told the committee that the proposed legislative changes were unlikely on their own to resolve the underlying financial and structural pressures, while encouraging the government to focus on reforms to strengthen scheme governance and oversight.
Main did not seek reappointment when her five-year ACC term concluded. ACC board chair Jan Dawson said: “Megan joined ACC at a time when performance had been declining for many years. Under Megan’s leadership we are now seeing significant and sustained improvement in rehabilitation rates and financial performance. Megan will leave ACC with the right momentum in place to continue this positive trajectory.” Main described her tenure as a collective effort. “Serving as the ACC chief executive for the last four years has been a huge privilege. I’m proud of the performance improvements we’ve collectively achieved in this time, and I’m confident that we’ve got the right plan to set ACC up to deliver even better outcomes for New Zealanders into the future,” she said.
That record was formed in the context of an independent Finity review that found ACC had experienced a loss of operational focus, with inefficient claims management and reduced effectiveness of rehabilitation support contributing to some injured people taking longer than necessary to recover and to claim costs exceeding funding levels. In response, ACC released its Turnaround Plan in January 2026. By March 2026, the long-term claims pool growth rate had fallen to 0.3% – the lowest recorded in 10 years – and 92% of clients on weekly compensation had returned to work or independence within one year, meeting the year-end target.
For brokers advising NSW employer clients, Main’s appointment carries three practical implications. First, the premium environment. icare confirmed in May 2026 that workers compensation industry classification rates will not change for 2026-27, in line with the government’s legislated reforms, while noting that individual employer premiums may still vary based on changes in wages, business activity, claims experience, and incentive eligibility. With scheme-level rates frozen, the variable that drives employer cost outcomes is claims performance – making return-to-work strategy the central risk management tool available to a broker’s client.
Second, insurer accountability. SIRA’s analysis found that less than 25% of insurers were effectively assessing the risks of delayed recovery and return to work. SIRA’s stated 2025-26 regulatory priority of improving insurer claims practices, combined with an incoming chief executive whose reference point is the ACC’s structured rehabilitation framework, signals heightened scrutiny of scheme agent performance – with flow-on implications for how brokers advise on agent selection. Third, impairment assessment reform. A review by the NSW Chief Psychiatrist of the Psychiatric Impairment Rating Scale – used to assess permanent psychiatric impairment – must report to Parliament within 18 months. Depending on the findings, insurers may need to adjust claim assessment processes, benefit projections, and reserving practices for psychological injury claims.
SIRA said Main’s experience in delivering a national no-fault insurance scheme and her background in the healthcare sector “will be a significant asset to SIRA as it oversees improved outcomes for the community in the NSW workers compensation, compulsory third party, and home building compensation schemes.”
