Verrall AyeshaACCIDENT COMPENSATION (ACCESS REPORTING AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health) on behalf of the Minister for ACC: I present to the House a legislative statement on the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: I move That the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.ACC is an integral part of our social support system in New Zealand and part of the fabric of our country but we know from research done by this Government that the scheme is not currently the same for all New Zealanders. This bill is a very important step in improving our understanding of how different groups access the accident compensation scheme and using that information will enable us to figure out what we can do to address disparities and barriers to access through new access reporting requirements. This bill also delivers on the Government's 2020 election manifesto commitment to return ACC to its original purpose of assisting all New Zealanders who have had an injury.The new access reports will focus on how Māori and any identified population group experiencing barriers are accessing ACC. Based on what we currently know for example that will include access for women disabled people Pacific people and Māori. Māori are specifically named for inclusion in the access reports to acknowledge their status as tangata whenua and Treaty partners to the Crown.I want to recognise on behalf of the Minister all those who submitted to the Education and Workforce Committee on this bill. I also want to thank the members of the committee again for their work which resulted in changes to the bill to ensure Māori are acknowledged as tangata whenua and Treaty partners. I wholeheartedly endorse that change.We know that some groups are accessing and benefiting less from the accident compensation scheme than others but we don't have good insights into why. We don't know the barriers that different groups are facing and we don't have good information on the drivers of those disparities and barriers to access. If we're to remove these barriers and make the scheme truly fair we need to start gathering that information and that's what this bill does.The new reporting duty will improve transparency around access to the scheme. The resulting access reports will not only provide data on how the scheme is being accessed but these will go those few steps further to understand why people are or are not accessing the scheme when they are entitled to. They will analyse the barriers people are facing and the drivers of those barriers and disparities. It's important that the Minister for ACC knows about these barriers and how they arise and where we are offering treatment or the cost of transport. Is there a lack of trust or something else that stands in the way? We need to know these things so we can fix them. These reports will go further than anything we currently do to understand these barriers and to understand access to the scheme.As well as the new reporting duty the bill also addresses one of the changes National made when last in office which unfairly disadvantaged thousands of New Zealand workers. The bill will bring forward eligibility for the minimum rate of weekly compensation from the sixth to the second week of a claimant's incapacity to work. This means people on low incomes working full-time when they were injured will get access to a top-up of their weekly compensation earlier. It will remove a financial stressor allowing them to better focus on their recovery. ACC estimates this will help approximately 10000 people.By way of conclusion this bill will give us high-quality data on how Māori and identified population groups are accessing the ACC scheme. Any disparities in access and the causes of drivers of these disparities can also be revealed. The reporting requirement will endure across many years and many Ministers. It will allow for the creation of time series and clear visibility of trends given the extended time for which data will be collected and reported.I look forward to ACC and the Government having a better understanding of what the big picture is for accessing accident compensation in New Zealand. I intend the changes in this bill to be used as a basis for the improvement of access for those not currently accessing the scheme to ensure all New Zealanders will be supported by ACC when they need it. I commend this bill to House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.