Power Simon: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Power Simon: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6487] 
SIMON POWER (NZ National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I have listened with some interest to the contributions made by members on the Opposition side of the Chamber. Although I do not profess to be— 
Rodney Hide 
: What part was the best part? 
SIMON POWER 
: I think that probably Ken Shirley’s airbrush comments were the best part if I look back historically over those points. I have just finished listening to Dr Paul Hutchison. 
The one thing that leaps out for me with regard to the purpose clause is the fact that through this bill the Accident Compensation Corporation is able to take this action at all. The fact that the corporation is in a position to ask the Government for this or that the Government can make a decision to do this at all leads to what I consider to be probably the most subversive message in this bill—that is when one has a State monopoly one can do what one likes. It does not matter what the market says it does not matter whether motorists are travelling safely and it does not matter that it is probably the very people whom Labour purports to represent who will suffer the most from this increased tax. Those same people now pay more for sherry and cigarettes and if this Government has its way they will not now be able to have a durry in the Returned Services Association. That is an outrage. This Government is busy telling us that it looks after the working people of New Zealand when all that it is about to do in this legislation is to tax them more for getting from A to B while trying to earn a decent living and make a contribution to society. 
It astounds me that this Government has not got the message that when one gives an organisation monopoly rights abuse inevitably follows. If we had competition there would be no need to increase the levies at all. This is a tax grab and the Government is simply putting its hand up and saying it will use this mechanism to redistribute money between the peoples of this country. This bill will affect mostly the people whom this Government purports to represent. 
As my colleague Peter Brown has just whispered to me—and I will give him credit for this because it is not bad line—if people can insure a car privately why can they not insure the inhabitants of the car privately? That is a very very fair point. Let me just run through Mr Brown’s contribution again before he gets to his feet and no doubt makes a contribution in a much more eloquent way than I could. If members of the public can insure their cars privately why can we not see the occupiers of those cars insured privately? There is no good reason for this Government to allow the Accident Compensation Corporation under this legislation to get away with this type of blatant use of monopoly rights in a certain part of the insurance market. 
Rodney Hide 
: It’s theft! 
SIMON POWER 
: There is no question about that. If this Government understood half of what is involved in the model of competition in these areas of law it would have understood that these types of increases in levies are absolutely indigestible to the public of New Zealand. It is only because of the monopoly rights of the Accident Compensation Corporation that the Government is able to pass legislation like this. That will all change. When there is a change of Government all that will change because there is no way that we will allow levies to be increased under this type of legislation by virtue of the monopoly status of various Government departments. 
I listened carefully to Ken Shirley and various other members talk about the fact that this is a stealth tax. It is worth just spending a couple of moments on that. The original pre-election credit card that we all saw bandied around the country with that person on the front of it who is unrecognisable to most people as they walk around the street— 
Rodney Hide 
: She looked like a Hollywood starlet. 
SIMON POWER 
: She did not look like that when I saw her. That card specifically stated that there would be no more taxes other than the increase in income tax that this Government put through at the end of 1999. What have we seen? We have seen this Government put through a range of stealth taxes and this bill is just yet another example of how this Government blindingly disadvantages the people it purports to represent.