Brown Peter: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Brown Peter: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6482] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The title of this bill is absolutely wrong. The average New Zealander reading it would think it was something about injury prevention something about rehabilitation something about compensation or something about all three of those attributes. In fact it is nothing of the sort. If we wanted to retain those references in the title this bill should be entitled the “Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation (ACC Levy Increase Amendment) Bill”. That would be far more honest. I believe that the public would then have made more submissions and there would have been submissions from individuals. I think we had three submissions all told. The most comprehensive of them was the Automobile Association’s submission representing some 950000 motorists but average motorists do not have a clue that this legislation will come into being and impose another 2.38c per litre of petrol on them. 
This bill could have been called the “Increased ACC Levy Bill” the “Increased ACC Petrol Levy Bill” or—along the lines of what the ACT member said—the “ACC Motor Vehicle Account Tax Increase Bill”. It could have had any title that reflected what it is all about. Personally I see the bill as another attempt to slug the petrol motorist and I would prefer it to be called the “Slug the Petrol Motorist Again Bill”. Under this Government and under Labour in particular the petrol motorist has had a really tough ride. That party does not give the motorist terribly much credence at all. 
The vast majority of motorists are concerned about the rising costs of running a motorcar which increase almost monthly under this Government. The cost of fuel is now going to go up a bit. The last increase in the cost of fuel was only 2 or 3 weeks ago when it went from 96c or 97c to nearly $1 a litre. The cost went down a little prior to that but it has gradually crept up—when this Government came to power I think it was 80c a litre—to $1 a litre and this legislation will put it up yet again. On top of that the levy contained in the registration fee has been increased significantly by this Government. 
We all know that the Accident Compensation Corporation has some very hefty liabilities—I think to the tune of about $8.5 billion—but it has something in excess of $4 billion tucked away in investments. Although the corporation has been mandated to become fully funded by the year 2014—I think from memory—that date is not essential and could be extended a little bit. Certainly as the economy dries up a little and becomes harsher the average person should be given some consideration. We should not just impose things on people because we have a commitment to a date or as the Labour Party has to an ideology. 
Whatever else we say about this title we say that it does not reflect what this bill does. In fact it is a long way short of giving anybody the impression that it will increase accident compensation levies. When this bill goes through—and I have no doubt that it will go through because I believe the Greens are committed 100 percent to supporting it—there will be an immediate increase in the cost of petrol and this bill will give a blank cheque sometime in the future to the accident compensation levy being increased even more. The title should reflect that sort of potential action. The present title gives the distinct impression that this bill is about some form of injury prevention rehabilitation and indeed compensation.