Moroney Sue: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 24 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:7070. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.SUE MORONEY (Labour) to the Minister for ACC: Does she stand by her decision to change to the risk rating model for ACC motor vehicle levies that has resulted in 115000 vehicles being reclassified in the first 3 days?Hon NIKKI KAYE (Minister for ACC): Yes I stand by my decision to ensure risk rating is introduced into New Zealand. It is the right thing to do. As a Minister I stand by decisions that I can reasonably control. As the member knows there was a technical error that caused that reclassification and it was only a fraction of the number of cars that were actually impacted. It was not 115000 that were actually impacted.Sue Moroney: Why was the 2011 Kia Sportage more dangerous than the 2012 Kia Sportage when they have the same safety specifications?Hon NIKKI KAYE: As I have said to the member before there are 2.7 million cars. We have said that we are working with the motor vehicle advisory group to look at potential changes in the future. In fact if she reads the press release of the chair of the board of ACC it confirms that next week we will be announcing some things that we will be consulting on as part of ACC’s regular consultation.Sue Moroney: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was very crystal clear.Mr SPEAKER: I heard your question. What is the point of order?Sue Moroney: My point of order is that I still do not know why one car is more dangerous than the other. I have had no explanation from the Minister.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am going to invite the member to ask the question again. I suspect the answer could have been a bit clearer as to why.Sue Moroney: Why is the 2011 Kia Sportage more dangerous than the 2012 Kia Sportage when they have the same safety specifications?Hon NIKKI KAYE: As I have said to her before there are 2.7 million cars. We always accepted that when we designed the system there may be some inconsistencies like the one that she mentioned. So there will be changes in the future. But what I can tell the member is that it is unacceptable to this side of the House to continue to have a country where people die on our roads. We can do more when we have systems like this. It costs $2 million per serious injury and we are investing to make sure that we actually get safer cars on the road. That is the right thing to do.Sue Moroney: Why does the fact that the 2003 BMW Z4 has not been involved in enough crashes in its 12 years of existence make it the most dangerous of cars under her risk-rating model?Hon NIKKI KAYE: Again if she is going to read out every single model of car then she is being completely unreasonable because there are hundreds of models of cars. So the point that I would make to her is that actually we are using laboratory crash-testing data and we have been very clear that we do that for a proportion of new cars because real-world crash data is not available. She knows that. The reality is we will be consulting on further changes in terms of the integrity of the data. But at the end of the day she knows that this side of the House is focused on ensuring that we reduce serious injuries. That side of the House—if they want to dump the system in the future they can do that but it is the wrong thing to do. We have to as a country have price signals around those that bear the greatest costs in terms of injury.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table a copy of an email to me dated 21 September from the owner of a Suzuki Grand Vitara confirming that ACC has given his car a lower rating than the Suzuki Grand Escudo an identical vehicle—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The document has been well and truly described. I will put the leave on this occasion. Leave is sought to table this particular email. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table a copy of an email sent to me dated 24 September from the owner of a 2011 Nissan—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Again this document has now been described. I will put the leave. Does the member have any others?Sue Moroney: Yes I have several.Mr SPEAKER: Well then we will put them all together. Very quickly just give us the dates of the emails and I will put the leave.Sue Moroney: May I have time to describe them—Mr SPEAKER: No you cannot. It is very doubtful whether we should even be putting the leave. It is not about making a political point. If the member quickly lists the dates I will put the leave.Sue Moroney: There are several of them so I will leave it there and ask a further supplementary question.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table the particular emails first described. Is there any objection? There is none.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Gerry Brownlee: This is Harry Duynhoven revisited.Sue Moroney: Is that what you are calling your Minister Gerry?Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member wants a supplementary question I would advise her just to ask it. I know she is responding to an interjection—ask it.Sue Moroney: Why has ACC given up refunding car owners whose vehicles have been wrongly classified under her flawed model telling them instead that they have to put a submission into the ACC levy consultation process which means the error will not be corrected until July 2016?Hon NIKKI KAYE: She is wrong again. As I have said to the member a number of times we are refunding people who have had incorrect classifications as part of this levy round. What we have said is that the levy rates will stand for this year but in the future we will be consulting on changes. But what I can say to the member is that under our watch people are paying a lot lower levies. In fact the average car registration has gone from $330 to $195. It is a good system overall but there is a proportion that we are working through in terms of changes.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table a copy of an email to me dated 2 July—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Be aware I am not going to put the leave. Leave is sought to inform members. I have been generous in allowing the leave to go forward earlier. It is not about making political points. I am not putting the leave.Sue Moroney: Who came up with the policy of defining risk by compiling Australian and New Zealand data first: was it her with these botched ACC levies or was it Michael Woodhouse with his worm farms?Hon NIKKI KAYE: The vehicle risk rating policy has been in place and was decided on by Cabinet earlier last year and then we signed off obviously on ACC’s implementation so it was not Minister Woodhouse. But what I can say to you is that at the end of the day under this Government we inherited an ACC scheme that was a shambles—$4.8 billion deficit; $10 billion to $31 billion. Motor vehicle registrations—$330 to $195. This is a small proportion of cars—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! We are now deviating well past the actual answer to the question.