Dowie Sarah: Accident Compensation (Financial Responsibility and Transparency) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDowie Sarah: Accident Compensation (Financial Responsibility and Transparency) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4216. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill):Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on this first reading of the Accident Compensation (Financial Responsibility and Transparency) Amendment Bill. It is always an honour to follow such an eloquent speech by my colleague Mr Andrew Bayly who has this wonderful knack of being able to expel financial sums and figures and use them in his speech.Hon Member: What about Phil?SARAH DOWIE: Well it still is very nice to follow Mr Twyford and I will probably come to that later but it is also very apt and fitting that I should take this call at this time and I will come back to the reason shortly. This scheme has now turned 40 years old and is a critical and integral part of our society in respect of our social sphere and economic sphere—a no-fault 24/7 coverage scheme for residents and visitors covering injuries whether they be at home with a motor vehicle or at work. I do not consider myself clumsy and I do not consider myself uncoordinated but I am while I take this call injured—injured just on Sunday in fact. I was at a child’s birthday party with my daughter where I lifted her off an extremely heavy solid rimu stool. As I brought her forward to meet me the stool decided to topple over and land on my toe—the very toe that is responsible for my bipedalism—and it was crushed and it was broken. We all know how fortunate it is to be rushed off to the emergency department and seen by some fantastic front-line staff. I give my thanks to the nurses and the X-ray people. I am not sure what the technical term is for X-ray—Clare Curran: Technicians.SARAH DOWIE: X-ray technician—oh that is handy. They were very compassionate and I am very thankful for their expertise. Hopefully I will be covered by ACC in respect of my treatment because I want to get healthy. There is nothing more exhilarating than running down the corridors of Parliament while the bells are ringing to get here to address you Mr Assistant Speaker. So that is my personal story about the ACC compensation scheme.But as we know this bill is about levied accounts. It is about the levied accounts of workers earnings and motor vehicles. If we look at some of the background as we heard in prior speeches in 1999 ACC moved into the premise of fully funding the lifetime costs of an injury claim. Before this only current costs were covered by levies. The legislation as it stands states that ACC must continue to collect residual levies until 2019. That is some 4 years out. What this bill will provide is an updated framework. It will improve it. It will make it more transparent implementing a more comprehensive set of principles for the funding of accounts through levies.No. 1 levies for each account must meet the lifetime costs of claims in relation to injuries that have occurred in that year. No. 2 what the bill will do if an account is in deficit—for example it cannot meet those costs—or alternatively has a surplus is that both must be corrected by the setting of levies at an appropriate rate for subsequent years. Finally large changes—the real peaks and troughs that we have seen in the past—must be avoided and this will provide greater flexibility and stability in levy setting. This bill will provide better guidance in how to manage this while balancing the needs of injury costs with levy collection.It is interesting to note following on from Mr Twyford’s contribution that the 2014 performance improvement framework review of ACC also identified such weaknesses noting that there is no overarching legislative framework that establishes the objectives to be met or principles to guide the annual levy-setting process. This is an issue that the Minister the Hon Nikki Kaye seeks to address in the bill through those three premises. So not only does this bill increase transparency but it makes sense fiscally. We want to make sure the scheme is well funded and can withstand the volatilities of the market place. But we have a duty to ensure that levies are kept as low as possible. So the bill also introduces stronger reporting requirements regarding account solvency and ACC funding and it takes care of the over-collection of levies.This is a Government that is committed to making sure that ACC remains sustainable and effective. In 2008 as we have heard previously this Government inherited a $4.8 billion deficit in ACC accounts. The Government and ACC have worked very hard to dig us out of this hole but not just that—ACC has worked extremely hard on the way it treats the injured and has focused on its clients’ needs. I am fortunate to sit on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. We heard from ACC about some of the measures it has put in place to raise the bar in respect of customer services in-house. I commend those officials and case managers for making it a priority to increase their compassion towards the injured in terms of updating some of their systems and making sure that reviews and other administrative processes are carried out in a timely function. That adds to the trust of those clients who deal with ACC.As of March 2015 ACC’s investment portfolio had reached $31.5 billion. Although ACC’s financial performance is still subject to short-term volatilities the performance of ACC as a scheme has definitely improved. This Government’s excellent management has led us out of that $4.8 billion hole that Labour left us in and since 2012 we have made levy reductions. New Zealanders have saved about $1.5 billion benefiting businesses workers and motor vehicle owners. That has saved our families’ money which goes directly back into their savings and obviously they are best to know how to put that money to good use. I also note Business New Zealand’s approval of this bill and the introduction of it. As an electorate MP who has her doors open to her constituents I also note the public’s approval of this bill of our management of the ACC levy and of the reductions that can go back into their back pockets.We are now looking as part of Budget 2015 at an average ACC motor vehicle levy falling from approximately $330 to $195 per year from 1 July and we are looking at an average cut of $75 for vehicles and over 2 years a 20c reduction in the average work account levy and 6c in the earners account levy. So this bill is about fiscal responsibility and transparency. This is a clear results-driven bill and hence I commend this bill