When life falls apart
Whether it’s a business partner or a bed partner, never give the decision making to the man
Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan. In the ’80s and ’90s, Antoinette Colbran and her husband Richard were living the life – a house on Sydney’s lower north shore, a holiday home, European trips, a boat and regular car upgrades. Their work in the medico-legal business of workers’ compensation was going great guns.
But when the then NSW premier, Bob Carr, overhauled the workers’ compensation laws, limiting the amount of compensation and changing other rules in the early 2000s, their business faltered overnight.
The couple lost their holiday house, investment properties and their home.
“People asked us how could we lose that much, but you do lose that much when your income stops. And if it stops dead, that’s what happens,” says Colbran. And that’s how things turned out 12 years ago.
From that business, Colbran took a part that was unaffected by the change in the workers’ comp laws, which meant she could provide expert witnesses as an independent basic service. She continues that work today.
“When we lost the
