Lee MelissaACCIDENT COMPENSATION (RECENT MIGRANTS AND RETURNING NEW ZEALANDERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingMELISSA LEE (National): I move That the Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill.This bill took a long time to be drawn from the ballot. I almost forgot that it was in the ballot. I put it in the ballot when I first came into Parliament almost a decade ago and when it was drawn it was a bit of a surprise for me that I could get that lucky whereas some new members have had other bills drawn—once twice some of them three times.This Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill is an important piece of legislation I believe to fix an existing anomaly in New Zealand's ACC law. At present the law prohibits migrants and returning New Zealanders from receiving ACC support once they reach superannuation age even if they are still unable to work as a result of their injury. This is because the weekly compensation that ACC provides to claimants currently ceases once a person reaches the New Zealand superannuation qualification age on the basis they are now receiving superannuation. However that leaves those that may not meet the requirements for superannuation without support.There are a number of returning New Zealanders migrants and citizens who are not eligible for weekly compensation because they cannot currently qualify for the residential criteria. To me that seems really unfair because these are people who have lived and worked in New Zealand who through no fault of their own suffer an injury as a result of an accident which means they can't work causing them to rely on the support from ACC to get by.The Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill will amend the Act to allow continuing ACC weekly compensation for this group of people until such time as they meet eligibility for superannuation. It is important that this gap in ACC provision is filled to ensure support for people when they're at their most vulnerable. For context for this bill it is not simply an issue for foreign workers but also for hard-working Kiwis who may have been born in New Zealand but gone abroad for part of their lives and are now returning to New Zealand to continue working and raising their families.The example I actually gave some of the Opposition spokespeople on this was that of a Kiwi who was born and raised in New Zealand and had at the age of 49 an amazing job offer from let's say Europe decided to go overseas and have an amazing career there and then decided at the age of 65 that they wanted to return to New Zealand but continue working because you know people are still continuing to work after the age of 65. If they returned to New Zealand and had an accident they would not qualify for the residency requirement of New Zealand super even though they were born and raised in New Zealand had lived here and paid taxes until the age of 49 or 50 and then had gone overseas because you have to be in New Zealand for at least five years after the age of 50 in order to qualify. So that New Zealand - born Kiwi who had in fact travelled overseas and worked and come back has to wait five years to qualify for that. Ultimately what it means for that person is that they would not at the age of 65 qualify for the ACC weekly compensation and nor would they qualify for New Zealand super.The ACC weekly compensation pays 80 percent of people's wages. This person does not qualify to transfer to New Zealand superannuation which sort of becomes the surrogate payment for ACC when they reach the age of 65. The 65-year-old migrant who becomes injured on their first day of work will be entitled to treatment and ACC weekly compensation at 80 percent of their access earnings for up to 24 months or until they regain capacity or are vocationally rehabilitated. If they regain capacity then their weekly compensation will stop once that is determined and they can return to their jobs. If they gain vocational independence but not capacity to return to their old job then they have three months from the date that they are assessed to be vocationally rehabilitated. They too once they reach the age of 65 would not qualify because they would not meet that residency requirement for New Zealand super.I believe that this Parliament and this country care about the most abandoned in our society and we talk about those issues quite often in this House. And National cares about the most vulnerable in our society as well. It is our job to find a solution and get these people's lives back on track once they have an accident. They otherwise are you know stuck in this legal quagmire where they don't get the compensation through ACC that they should and nor do they get that surrogate payment through New Zealand superannuation. With the growing age of New Zealanders there is an ageing workforce and as more diverse nations move into New Zealand more people living in New Zealand may be working after the age of 65. If they have an accident they will not qualify for the ACC weekly compensation.Officials so far have been unable to identify how many people are being affected by the weekly compensation stoppages and can't access New Zealand super due to residency requirements but I think going back to when I first drafted this bill there were about 90 people who actually did get their ACC weekly compensation payment stopped at the age of 65. Some people transfer on to the New Zealand super. Some people choose not to but the thing is that once it actually gets to the age of 65 the data doesn't seem to sort of exist. It may not be a lot of people but the thing is that it is that vulnerable group of people who should be paid ACC weekly compensation but are not.For many New Zealanders and hard-working residents of our country this loophole needs to be closed. This is in the interests of fairness and of justice and to ensure that our laws actually work the way we want them to. I note that the Hon David Parker and the Ministry of Justice informed me on 14 February—Valentine's Day—that this bill was consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and that is important because this bill is designed to ease the suffering of the forgotten few who are unable to have their voices heard and their issues resolved without the passage of this bill. This bill is about righting a wrong and about supporting our fellow Kiwis and friends who were invited to build their lives in Aotearoa particularly because those affected are near the end of their working life. And it is not just about migrants but also about New Zealanders who were in fact born in this country and travel overseas but come back to live and retire in this country. If they actually have an accident they should be supported as well.The role of Parliament is to hear out and speak for the forgotten few as well as for the masses and I'm here today to speak out for those very few affected by this oversight in New Zealand law. I implore you all to vote for the Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill in the interests of fairness and of those affected. Hopefully members opposite would vote for it but the smiling Minister Iain Lees-Galloway who's actually looking very dapper with a bowtie by the way did actually tell me that Labour's position is to actually oppose this bill. I have to say I'm very disappointed but I will look forward to hearing why he feels that a few people in this country—I mean it's not like it's going to cost the Government amazing amounts of money—will miss out on an ACC weekly compensation that they should rightfully be paid by ACC. Often some of these people will actually transfer on to benefits and you know technically that means Government doesn't actually spend money. If they're hard up they will be going for emergency benefits or what have you but ACC should be the ones who should pay for it because it is due to their accidents and their inability to continue their work.