Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I'm glad to rise on the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill third reading. As the Hon Michael Woodhouse has articulated before the National Party will be opposing this bill for a simple reason in that this bill is a complete waste of time—not untypical of this Government to be passing such legislation; quite typical actually of them. But this piece of legislation is a waste of time and it is absolutely a solution looking for a problem.The challenges that I've outlined in prior calls in regards to this legislation are that the whole point—and the Minister outlined this—is the need for information to figure out what to do. Gee does that not epitomise this Government in terms of every problem that this country faces—But we need more information to figure out what we need to do."? Well the Minister only needs to ask the department for some of the research that's already been undertaken on this exact matter. The campaign only run by ACC less than 18 months ago—"Don't tough it out"—has research in regards to Māori and why they are less likely to seek help for minor injuries and overall why they have lower ACC claim rates.Well OK so research has already been done in regards to some of these points. Findings: 20 percent less likely to make a claim; Māori 2.5 percent have a higher propensity to incur serious injuries as a result of that. Research again undertaken by ACC in 2019—I could go back 50 years but let's just stay in 2019—"Māori have a very low awareness of the ACC scheme." So it is not that we are sitting around here thinking as the Minister articulated "We need information to figure out what to do." Well no the Minister just needs to google the reasons why and see that ACC has already done the research.They already know the problem but the problem is that this Government isn't providing the support to ACC in order to get the solutions required. They are a very capable department. They look after of course around $45 billion of Kiwis' cash and have that under management so they're not a small beast and they have a significant amount of capability and actually they have done a lot of thinking about this. This isn't the first time they've decided that "Geez this is a little bit of an issue and maybe we should have a think about it." This is something that they have been considering for a while. So while it is noble on behalf of the Government to say we are going to collect this information on an annual basis—I mean that's nice. But a nice little report around identified disparities which—I don't know I wouldn't want to put money on it but I'd say it would probably end up being quite similar to the recommendations that the research has already found in 2022 and 2019 and before. How about we just start doing something about it? How about we just start actually putting in place some plans and some actions to achieve some outcomes? That may sound outrageous; that may sound like "Wow that's a bit crazy. Why would we be trying to actually do something about it and actually have plans and outcomes and maybe performance measures—maybe performance measures—around achieving some of this stuff?" Maybe this is a bit sort of blue-sky thinking but you know in 133 days I am hoping that the sky is going to turn blue and we're going to see a little bit more sense coming into this. But just get on with the job Minister. Get on with the job and actually start doing some proper actions and plans and interventions that are actually going to increase the rates at which Māori access ACC. We know it's an issue. We know some of the challenges around why that is.I think as the Hon Michael Woodhouse has articulated the whole driver around this bill was one of manifesto promises. Well I think basically what that is code for is that this is a politically motivated narrative that suits a narrative on behalf of the Government and they want to be seen to be doing something but they are walking around the hallway carrying a book looking busy but not actually doing anything that's actually going to result in real outcomes for the people that are obviously not engaging with the system at a rate at which we believe they should be. So my advice for the Minister for what it's worth is just get on and read the research that's already been undertaken through the agencies take some action around that and do what you need to do. Because what's interesting—the Minister provided an overview on this only—what was it?—a couple of days ago I think. We've seen that the health department has now been employing—do you remember the wait-lists for elective surgery the way in which they're now assessing the prioritisation? Well it seems that Māori have been put at the top of waiting lists for elective surgery based on ethnic background and not necessarily on clinical need. Well again there's another example of a Government—Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall: Rubbish!SIMON WATTS: Rubbish. Do I hear "Rubbish"? Did I hear "Rubbish"? Did anyone hear "Rubbish"? Did you hear that the Hon Michael Woodhouse? "Rubbish." Well I wonder whether—I don't know who said that but maybe we'll just have a little check over the written parliamentary questions from the Minister who actually confirmed that squarely and I think also Stuff reported on it as well. If you google Stuff and have look at that they've got a nice little write up about Wellington. Guess what! It's happening in Auckland as well. We know it's happening around the country and the washing's going to be shown on this little issue the sneaky little issue that they're at making and using ethnic background to prioritise surgical wait-lists and not clinical need. I mean that is a shocker right? It is a shocker.But getting back to the political narrative of this bill—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Let's get back to the bill not the political narrative.SIMON WATTS: —thank you Mr Speaker—the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill third reading. Getting back to this bill this is a waste of time. Why don't we use this opportunity to actually do something sensible in this area? Why don't we do that? That would be useful instead of wasting our time. Glen Bennett: Tell us about the bill.SIMON WATTS: And who's that? Who's that? I think it sounds like the member from Northcote was it? No? Down the back—New Plymouth. Good. Good to see. Lovely place New Plymouth. So that's pretty much it. We're going to be opposing this. It's a great waste of time. I don't know why they're bothering with it but you know that's probably typical for these guys. We'll be opposing this. Thank you."