Potaka TamaTAMA POTAKA (National—Hamilton West): Tama tū tama ora; tama noho tama mate. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on a subject matter that dominated my youthful life being the accident compensation scheme on this second reading of the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill and perhaps as the only New Zealand Māori male—actually the only Māori male in the Chamber at this late Thursday hour—I feel eminently qualified to speak to this matter. I feel like I am the last cheese roll sitting in the warmer late on an Invercargill afternoon. Everyone is looking at me to understand whether or not I have any issues; what is wrong with me. In many ways however I don't need another statistics inquiry—noting that over the past two months I've had four or five visits from census workers after I sent in my actual census forms. Another statistics worker coming by my place to ask me about personal injuries is candidly one bureaucrat too many at my place. The Education and Workforce Committee—beautiful; it should be acknowledged for hard work and maybe I'll make it to that station one day—now brings back more proposed legislation exposed to semantic slip trip and fall" into the legislative waste ether.Before I go on I wanted to recognise that ACC Hamilton West now hosts a beautiful ACC building for 650 workers—I couldn't think of a better place to have an ACC building—and congratulate Waikato-Tainui and Tainui Group Holdings—where's my brother Jamie Strange?—for their marvellous effort. The lack of parking at the building gives me some discomfort but I'll leave that for another forum. In addition the work that ACC undertook recently at Te Matatini—Delwyn Abraham and others—kei te mihi.The number of personal injuries I've suffered in my formative years is long—heads shoulders knees and toes; eyes ears teeth and nose—and it was only mitigated by the incredible ACC scheme and indoctrination by admired law lecturer and veritable Scotsman John Miller a sentinel of the Vic Uni Law School and Wellington-based defender of injured persons. My esteemed peer and in-law the Minister for ACC the Hon Peeni Henare for his youthful vigour in presenting this bill which seeks to improve the focus and understanding of how people with personal injuries are accessing the scheme to increase transparency of levels of access to the scheme and to give better effect to the purpose of weekly compensation—kei te mihi.The amendments insert a new function in the corporation and also bring forward some eligibility for the minimum rate of weekly compensation although we haven't talked about that today. Alas taku taokete toi ahurewa o te Kāpenata [my illustrious brother-in-law from Cabinet] the National Party and I oppose the bill today. I respect the Minister's honourable intent and effort however cannot bring myself as a Māori man—I could say a Māori cis man—to support the proposed pathway forward and we are willing as we always are to work constructively in the select committee to understand why the bill is in the Whare in this House to really understand equity and equality of opportunity and why the Government's interpretation is more reliant on input and less on outcomes. As my learned Ōtākou colleague Mr Woodhouse commented and in reflection we are reminded that for about 24 years ACC published in-depth data on injuries each year—not required but ACC thought it was useful until the former Labour administration of the day thought it was unnecessary. ACC can do this again and does need legislation and regulatory requirement to crack on with the mahi. In fact there are a lot of things that the right people in the right place at the right time can do without the need for more regulatory compliance. There was a time in our short time on this side of Papatūānuku that we could get reliable statistics in a timely manner; unlike now when we've got more barbecues down at Mount Smart!The National Party has not seen evidence demonstrated that any Māori or any population groups struggle to access ACC. I'll happily receive that data. It may be that Māori men are the highest users of ACC per capita given the propensity of Māori men to be in higher-risk industries—in that regard reducing accident rates to achieve equity not by wondering why other cohorts don't get injured as often as Māori men. Spending more money on gathering stats for statistics' stake is likely pouring health moneys into Molesworth and Murphy Streets instead of attracting and retaining nurses and supporting them in the delivery of health services. We don't need another clunky effort to count Māori males like me; what we need is a reduction of personal injuries incurred by Māori males. The easiest way to do that is less spending on the labour workforce in ACC and actually getting the services and the action out there.In relation to the eligibility the minimum rate of weekly compensation as no regulatory impact statement has been done or notified to us we have no idea how many people this affects if any. We are yet to receive a number for how many people would be affected or even any scenario where this could apply. With relevant evidence National would not be opposed to this change. We wait with it but with no evidence we continue to oppose. Kia ora tātou. Love those cheese rolls!"