Street Maryan: General Debate 
Street Maryan: General Debate 
[Volume:653;Page:2547] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 One knows when a Minister is really in trouble; it is when the Prime Minister has to explain in very extravagant terms how very confident he is in him. According to John Key Nick Smith has a brain the size of the South Island. But let us look at the facts: since becoming the Minister for ACC Nick Smith has botched the sacking of Ross Wilson has engaged in what senior actuaries and very respected commentators have labelled “irresponsible scaremongering” about the accident compensation scheme and has gagged and bullied the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) board. He then attempted to do the same to ACC’s chief executive officer Dr Jan White right in front of my eyes by gatecrashing a select committee on ACC’s financial performance and actively trying to prevent her—in fact interrupting her—from answering some questions. 
That is just the start of it. Since Nick Smith took over the ACC portfolio we have seen the calculated manufacture of a non-existent crisis. We know that the ACC portfolio—some of us know this better than others—is complex and difficult but it does not need breathless irascible panicky behaviour in its management. It does not need the kind of panicky approach the Minister for ACC has taken and demonstrated in the last few months; it needs a calm and measured approach. 
Yes in areas where costs are rising we should ask what we can do about that. Well let us take a deep breath and look at what the scheme offers to see where costs might be curtailed. Why are they going up? In part they are going up because of an ageing population and because an ageing population takes longer to rehabilitate. But more than anything if the kinds of approach to the scheme this National Government has taken in the past are taken again we will see fewer visits to physiotherapists by order—in that one is allowed to have only five visits or six as I think it was in the 1990s. Then one had to jump through enormous hoops to get further treatment—that approach does not facilitate good rehabilitation. 
The scheme requires a calm approach a rational approach and a considered approach. None of those approaches have been demonstrated by the Minister who has responsibility for one of the jewels in the crown of our social structures in New Zealand. The accident compensation scheme is the envy of the world. It is the envy of the world because of its comprehensive coverage because of the low rates of levies and because it protects its injured citizens from the trials and tribulations of litigation. That is one of its greatest features. 
 As part of his plan to manufacture a crisis that is non-existent we have heard Nick Smith talk in the general debate about the accident compensation scheme and its solvency and that the reality is that accident compensation is effectively insolvent. Yet a few days later on  
Morning Report 
 David Parker said to him that he had been calling the scheme insolvent and that it was not. Nick Smith said he had not. This man cannot even agree with himself let alone get the facts right about accident compensation. He cannot maintain a consistent line from one week to the next because he has no comprehensive understanding yet. Although one hopes he might gain it in time he clearly does not yet have an understanding of solvency as it relates to the scheme. If a scheme has liabilities of $22 billion and assets of $10 billion there is an issue of solvency until we look at the period of time over which those liabilities are calculated. The liabilities are calculated over the lifetime of an injury.