The plight of Shellharbour councillor Peter Moran highlights the human - and very real - consequences of decisions that bureaucrats make.
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Four months ago, Cr Moran's feet were crushed under 500kg of steel pipes in a workplace accident. It wasn't his fault.
It is unlikely Cr Moran, a truck driver at the time, will ever return to work.
Even now, four months later, he cannot walk without help.
He is not even able to put a shoe on his left foot, never mind the mandatory safety boots.
As if the terrible injury to his feet was not bad enough, now Cr Moran is about to be cut off at the knees financially, by controversial changes to workers' compensation.
Understandably, he is furious. Undoubtedly, the many other workers who have suffered a debilitating injury at work will also be furious. So should we all be.
The changes to workers' compensation have been made, the NSW Government says, because the scheme is in deficit to the tune of $4 billion.
That is clearly a situation that needs to be fixed.
But punishing those the scheme is meant to help isn't the right way to go about it.
Unemployment is at levels that once seemed utopian, impossible to achieve. Interest rates are low. Economic growth continues to surge. Surely there must be another answer to this problem.
One that enhances - rather than damages - our country's deserved reputation as a caring society.
And one that does not result in innocent workers like Cr Moran paying the price for their own painful misfortune.
