Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to reiterate our support for this Accident Compensation Amendment Bill. For those that may be listening in or just flicking through Sky Sport on the way through to the test match in Pakistan ACC does just for clarity refer to the Accident Compensation Corporation not the Alternative Commentary Collective".Of course it is an absolute gem as has been mentioned. It's world-leading legislation this. In 1974 I think the third Labour Government brought this in. It's very much part of our legislative process and our culture really and of how we do business and look after those that have had accidents or indeed death. One in three Kiwis actually made a claim on ACC in the 2016-2017 financial year so it's something that we utilise a great deal and of course it takes much of the contention out of that.Of course we know that it's actually been really well managed as well. We've got something like $30 billion in assets that back—Hon Andrew Little: Nearly 40.MARK PATTERSON: —or nearly $40 million is it coming up? Yes it could well be. There's a massive fund there that's built up and it's been well stewarded.This has been referred to before as a piece of legislation that has originated I think from the Miriam Dean report and it was picked up by the Hon Michael Woodhouse as was mentioned earlier on before and is now under the guidance of Iain Lees-Galloway. We commend all the work that has been done across both Governments to get this to where it is and also of course within the select committee process the officials that helped us work through what can be reasonably dry stuff but they did it well.The submitters as has been mentioned—many of them were out of scope. They saw it as a chance—it's a bit like Paul Eagle referring to the Crown minerals bill before. He said it was lighting people's eyes up when they saw "Crown Minerals" only to find it was a narrow bill. Well this is very similar. A lot of those submitters came in to have their say on the ACC but were outside the narrow scope of what this bill seeks to address. But I would like to single out one submission: the submission of Warren Forster and Tom Barraclough—I think one is a lawyer and the other an academic down in Dunedin—who put an absolutely comprehensive submission in front of us. They're absolute experts in this field and I think it's great that we've got Kiwis that come forward with a real interest in legislation to help the legislative process.So of course this amends the Accident Compensation Act 2001. We've heard many of the provisions before; I won't labour them too much. I think the one about allowing employees of New Zealand companies overseas to have access to the ACC—and also the Government of course. We've got many of our people offshore and of course now under the Pacific reset and this much bolder foreign policy we've got more diplomats out there as well and we're boosting our trade delegations overseas so this will be very welcome for them as well because I would imagine healthcare's very expensive over there in many of these jurisdictions.It removes the requirement for claimants to choose between ACC and superannuation. They can have both for a period after 12 months as it is now. There is of course—just on that—a provision where coming up to retirement age it does allow for two years after the retirement age to continue to claim both ACC and the super. That allows for a just transition. I think as Tim Macindoe pointed out in his contribution that's pretty fair. We can't just have it open-ended but with two years I think the committee felt we landed in a pretty fair place.It also disestablishes—I was interested in this—the Accident Compensation Appeal Authority for 1972 to 1982 claims. There are a lot of people who are suggesting that we should be going back to that system where you don't have to go to the District Court and there is provision for us to have our own appeals authority and just streamline that. I think as members of Parliament one of the significant roles that we do take on is ACC stuff so members of Parliament will be interested in this as well.So I won't labour the points; I think they've been well made. It is a nice tidy-up piece of legislation and New Zealand First is very pleased to continue supporting it. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker."