Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Labour—Panmure-Ōtāhuhu): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. It is indeed wonderful and I'm humbled to give a speech on the Accident Compensation (Interest on Instalment Plans) Amendment Bill on a Saturday night under urgency.This is a bill which amends the Accident Compensation Act 2001 the principal Act which primarily will enable ACC to change interests on levies that are collected by instalments and it will also validate interest that has been charged by the ACC in the past on levies collected by instalments. Labour supports this bill and I want to cover a few a few reasons why we are supporting this bill.First this bill seeks to enhance financial flexibility for businesses and it does this by allowing more manageable interest rates on ACC levy instalment plans. This can especially be advantageous for small businesses and we support small businesses.In addition this bill may reduce the financial burdens by lowering interest rates and this may encourage more levy payers to choose instalment plans in order to pay their ACC levies. This can enhance compliance and timely payments which may lead to revenue streams for ACC that is more stable so we hope. And also in light of the economic challenges brought on by the recent global events like the pandemic it is probably wise to offer a more accommodating payment structure at ACC which can assist those who are still recovering financially because it is in no one's interest to cause undue financial issues for our small businesses.But there are some concerns and I want to cover some of those concerns. Because on the flip side there is a potential for revenue loss. And I say potential" because we don't quite know yet. But those who do not agree with changes to ACC argue that interest rates on instalment plans could potentially be reduced thereby reducing ACC's revenue. Now unfortunately a significant decrease in interest collected on overdue payments may result in budget constraints at ACC and this may in turn affect ACC's ability to serve people. It is my sincere hope that this does not happen Minister. I'm just saying that there is a potential.Also it is likely that when a new interest calculation method is introduced that there will probably be some administrative costs. So it is crucial to ensure that any new system that is introduced is managed efficiently and I'm sure the Minister will ensure that this happens.Another risk is the fact that if interest rates are indeed lowered it may actually reduce the incentive to pay what is owed to ACC in a timely manner and this might lead to some businesses or individuals delaying payments intentionally. I hope this does not happen. Especially if they are aware that penalties are going to be less severe financially for them some people might choose not to pay on time.Overall though we are very supportive of this bill. My colleagues on this side of the House have already covered some of the risks or some of the issues that came through especially in the regulatory impact statement (RIS). And one of the things that we see on the RIS is there are two parts to the problem that this bill is trying to address.First it is trying to ensure that ACC's levy collection power is fit for purpose. And second the bill is also trying to address the risk that ACC has been acting outside of its legislative scope. Now also on the RIS we see that there are two Government agencies that don't quite agree on this issue—ACC and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment—and one of the things that we've already signalled to the Minister is there will be a number of questions around this issue because we do want to ensure that ACC not only in the future currently as well as in the past has been acting within its legislative scope.Under the regulations that will be made in the future the interest rate payable on levies collected under a 10-month instalment will be 2.73 percent. However there is no interest payment charged on a three-month instalment period or indeed a six-month instalment period and we would like to ask the Minister more questions on this."