Douglas Roger: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Douglas Roger: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:658;Page:6930] 
12.  
Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS (ACT) 
 to the  
Minister for ACC 
: Why is he persisting with many of the previous Government’s ACC policies at an “increasing” cost to the country and when will he implement National’s policy of opening it up to competition? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for ACC) 
: 
 Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise to the Minister. I ask the front benches of both main parties please to show a little more respect to this House. If they do not respect each other they should show a little respect to the House. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The new Government will be reversing many of the previous Government’s scheme extensions that saw the Accident Compensation Corporation become a welfare agency rather than an accident insurer and saw the scheme’s unfunded liability blow out from $4 billion to $13 billion over the last 4 years. We are delivering on our election policy of doing a stocktake as announced in August. We are bringing in private-sector case managers to assist in the rehabilitation of long-term compensation recipients capable of working. We have deferred to date our policy of investigating opening up the work account to competition as it is not a priority at present given the scale of the immediate problems facing the scheme. 
Hon Sir Roger Douglas 
: Why is the Minister so reluctant to introduce the declared policy of the National Party in 1999 2002 2005 and 2008 of opening the work account to competition? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The member misrepresents the policy which was very clear. It was that we would investigate competition in the work account. I point out to the member that actually the work account is in the least difficulty within the scheme. It is the motor vehicle account the earners account and the non-earners account that have had the multibillion-dollar problems. The Government understandably has wanted to focus on the problem where it is greatest. 
Hon Sir Roger Douglas 
: Could the Minister explain to the House how it is equitable or efficient to load on to current employees and employers levies of up to 50 percent more than this year’s real costs? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: It has been a long-established and quite sound policy of not just public-sector insurers but also private-sector ones that the full cost of accidents that occurred in the current year should be covered. The reality of the scheme as it stands is that cases where the cost of an accident this year may flow on for 40 years of care costs need to be covered in terms of assets held by the scheme. The basic problem is that it is $13 billion short of achieving that and that is why substantive change is required. 
Michael Woodhouse 
: Will the Government be taking any actions to address criminals getting lump sums and other generous entitlements from accident compensation when their P labs have blown up or when they have been drunk-driving for the umpteenth time? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Yes. We are toughening up access to accident compensation for those who committed criminal offences. Rather than having the system at the moment where the Accident Compensation Corporation can apply to the court in extreme cases—there has been only a handful of cases and often these are overturned by the court—we are proposing a new law that will automatically disentitle claimants who injure themselves while committing a serious crime.