Sepuloni CarmelACCIDENT COMPENSATION (ACCESS REPORTING AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for ACC): I present to the House a legislative statement on the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I move That the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Workforce Committee to consider the bill.ACC is a world-leading scheme that has become an integral part of our social support system in New Zealand and part of the fabric of our country. We know that not everyone is able to access the scheme equally. Advice I requested from ACC last year showed evidence of disparities in access to the scheme by Māori women Pacific peoples disabled people ethnic communities children and young people and seniors.This issue was highlighted again recently by research from the University of Otago's Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora Māori o Ngāi Tahu the Ngāi Tahu Māori health research unit. Their study found that at least for some injuries ACC supportive claimants once they're already in the system appeared to be on par for Māori and non-Māori. I want to acknowledge the Associate Minister for ACC Willie Jackson for his work in this space which will have played no small part in achieving this outcome.As one of the authors of this study noted in the subsequent media article this finding does not disregard that there are still issues in accessing ACC support for Māori. There is still a significant gap in the number of Māori filing ACC claims and those who try to work out their injury on their own. Establishing routine ways of collecting data about accessing ACC support is vital to ensuring equitable injury outcomes for Māori.As Minister for ACC I want to continue the Government's work towards addressing inequities in accessing the scheme with this new package of reforms. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill is the second package of reforms to this scheme. It works alongside the recently passed Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2022 which will help a significant number of women access support through the scheme that was previously unavailable.The drivers of access disparities are complex. ACC has done a considerable amount of work to understand these drivers but these amendments will provide more tools for us to use to inform future changes to the Accident Compensation Act and ACC's practices. This bill amends the purpose of the Act and the functions of ACC to ensure that ACC focuses on access to the scheme by Māori and other population groups rather than on only people who make ACC claims. Currently the purpose of the Act refers to ACC's obligations in relation to claimants receiving what they are entitled to under the scheme.There is nothing in the purpose that deals with understanding how people with personal injuries including those people who have not yet made a claim are accessing the ACC scheme. Similarly the Act does not expressly deal with what ACC is doing to understand how to support access to the scheme for all people with injuries covered by the scheme. Refining the purpose of the Act is intended to make it clear that in line with the scheme's overriding goals minimising the impact of injury on the community is not limited to those which are claimed for.The bill also amends the functions of ACC to expressly refer to its monitoring of access to the scheme in order to identify how to improve delivery of its services. This will make it clear how we expect the change in purpose to operate. These changes will support the delivery of our 2020 election manifesto commitment to return ACC to its original purpose of assisting all New Zealanders who have had an injury. As I noted with regards to the bill's amendments to the purpose and functions of ACC it is crucial that ACC monitors access to the scheme so that it can work to improve equity of access to and entitlements from the scheme. Currently there is no requirement in the Act for ACC to report on how different population groups are accessing the accident compensation scheme. I'm introducing a new requirement for ACC to annually report on how Māori and other population groups are accessing the accident compensation scheme. The data collected will be invaluable in understanding who is accessing ACC and how and even more importantly who is not and why not.It's vital that we keep working to better understand why some injured people in Aotearoa New Zealand may not be accessing cover so we can make sure ACC is fair and fit for purpose for everyone. This bill will continue to build on the work that the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2022 did on addressing the changes National made when last in office.This bill brings forward eligibility for the minimum rate of minimum compensation from the sixth week to the second week of incapacity. Weekly compensation is intended to enable claimants to meet their everyday expenses and focus on their recovery. The minimum rate of weekly compensation recognises that some people are in very low-paid full-time jobs at the time of their injury and their rehabilitation may be delayed as a result of an inadequate income. This change means that those claimants on very low incomes will not have to wait five weeks for their weekly compensation to be topped up to the minimum rate. Bringing forward eligibility will remove a financial hardship earlier in the recovery process allowing people to better focus on their rehabilitation.In summary this bill makes important changes to ACC that will ensure more transparency about how Māori and other population groups are accessing the scheme—including any disparities in access—and more support for claimants who have very low incomes or had very low incomes when they were injured. Thank you Mr Speaker. I commend this bill to the House.