The NSW government is “open to all reasonable compromises” as it tries to muster support for its workers’ compensation reforms.

Its earlier draft legislation cleared the state’s parliament’s lower house in June but failed to secure passage in the upper chamber.

“We’ve compromised when it came to the crossbench in the lower house, which is the reason why the bill did pass with strong crossbench support in the lower house,” Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said.

“We remain committed to talking with the opposition to find a way through … The only way this will get passed is with their support ... We are open to all reasonable compromises that allow the reform to go through, so long as it delivers a better system for injured workers and sustainable premiums for business.”

Mr Mookhey says preliminary advice shows the workers’ compensation scheme’s deficit worsened to $5.4 billion as of June 30.

“At the same time last year, it was at $3.7 billion,” he said. “The scheme is going backwards … a scheme without money helps no one and part of the reason why the government wants to fix workers’ compensation is because the system is failing everybody.

“And the call is clear that there needs to be reform. The longer we wait, the harder it gets. Each day that goes by without reform just simply makes the reform task harder.”