The plaintiff worker succeeded in her judicial review application; the Medical Appeal Panel's decision reducing her whole person impairment from 15% to 14% was declared void and set aside, and the matter was remitted for redetermination by a differently constituted Appeal Panel. The court held that under s 323(1) of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 (NSW), it is not sufficient for a Panel merely to find that a pre-existing condition 'contributes to' the impairment in a general causal sense; the Panel must make a specific finding that, but for the pre-existing condition, the degree of permanent impairment resulting from the work injury would not have been as great — that is, the pre-existing condition must be found to have made the assessed impairment worse. Without that finding at the s 323(1) stage, the assumed 10% deduction under s 323(2) cannot be triggered. The decision also confirms that while administrative reasons need not be extensive, a court will not fill gaps in reasoning by assuming the correct legal test was applied where the reasons do not disclose, expressly or by necessary implication, that the required statutory inquiry was undertaken.
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