Brown Peter: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13950] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I have listened to both the National Party spokespeople on accident compensation and I cannot work out where they are coming from. They are advocating that we go back to the Woodhouse principles more strongly. [ 
Interruption 
] Pansy Wong is saying yes to that. But the impression members on this side of the House have is that National wants to privatise accident compensation. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh National members have changed their minds on that. When did they do that? Was it last night at the party? 
If that party over there is committed to the accident compensation structure then its members should be voting for this bill. If they believe that accident compensation is the way to go they should be voting for this bill because this bill extends a number of improvements to accident victims. It is as simple as that. We can go on with this highfalutin waffle but this bill extends significant improvements to a number of accident victims. The Minister clearly outlined in her speech that it extends cover to include mental injuries for single traumatic events. She used the example of the train driver. Is that guy not worth considering? Is he not worth some sort of cover? Do National members feel proud of themselves for voting that down? For that reason alone they should vote for it. [ 
Interruption 
] They cannot sit back and say no. Does that train driver need accident cover? 
Pansy Wong 
: Look at the bill. 
PETER BROWN 
: I have looked at the bill; I think the member should look at the bill. The member should pay attention to the bill and not just be blinded by political rhetoric. 
I usually quite like Dr Hutchison’s contributions to accident compensation debates. I have always put him down as a sound thinker. But he seems to be saying that this bill blurs the edges between accidents and sickness. I would say that that is a good move. If we could extend accident compensation cover to cover sickness we would would we not? It is a good move to blur the issue. That is not a retrograde step; that is a good move. 
There is one little thing in this bill—maybe more than one—that I want to stress because I think it is a very good move. Somewhere in the bill is a clause that refers to the loss of potential earnings for young people. Paul Hutchison referred to the case of a younger person and those are the sorts of circumstances I want to talk about. I ask members to imagine a young guy of 18—or it could be a young lady—who is doing exceedingly well at university. Perhaps that person will be a high-flying lawyer or a surgeon or something that will really produce some income—maybe almost as much as Grant Dalton—so he or she can buy a $3 million section in Queenstown. Imagine that that this person takes a year off works in his or her holiday period at the meatworks or on the wharves and gets injured and is incapacitated for life. Right now that person would be getting peanuts. This bill at least acknowledges that that it is a problem. 
New Zealand First fought hard for this when the Government renationalised accident compensation. We fought hard to get this sort of coverage. It is only very lukewarm coverage but at least it is a move in the right direction. It is by no means adequate. We believe that in the longer term the Government will have to say that this young person I have hypothetically referred to should get fuller coverage. It should be recognised that he or she could be earning quite considerably in his or her more mature years and should get compensation for that. But this bill does open the door a little bit on that and New Zealand First will be pressing for a better formula in terms of compensation. 
One area that I thought was in the bill which New Zealand First also feels very strongly about is that— 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: I thought you’d read the bill. 
PETER BROWN 
: —I know; Dr Hutchison can look at me and he might well agree by looking at me—this country is getting older. The population is getting older.  
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Every year. 
PETER BROWN 
: Yes every year as my colleague says. Every year we are depending more and more on mature people staying in the workforce longer. If we look at the accident compensation coverage they get and the treatment they get we see that it is second rate. I thought this measure was in the bill. I was looking at it just before I came to the House but now I cannot find it. But I can say that New Zealand First will support this bill for that very reason—we will be trying to get that into the bill. We will try to get fairer coverage for older people. I know that the Greens will support this. They look at me and they say: “Yes we need people like you to carry on for quite a while yet.” 
Hon Member 
: Yeah right! 
PETER BROWN 
: Yeah right! 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You’ve been carrying on for quite some time already. 
PETER BROWN 
: I have some news for the member: I will carry on for a little bit longer. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: A perfect remedy for sleeping disorders. 
PETER BROWN 
: Exactly. 
This bill goes quite some way to addressing some concerns but it does not go far enough and New Zealand First will be pushing it a little bit further. On the negative side—and my understanding has not been changed; someone will correct me if things have changed—we still pay compensation to a person who gets injured whilst committing a crime. We will be asking the select committee to look at that issue. 
I do not think I need to say any more. The detail has been worked through and I am sure that Mr Bennett will take a call and enlighten us even further as to why National are taking such a hard-hearted attitude to this bill. But New Zealand First will be supporting its referral to the select committee where we will endeavour to improve it even more. 
Debate interrupted.