Severin ToniTONI SEVERIN (ACT): I rise on behalf of the ACT Party to support the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. It's great that ACC will acknowledge these birth injuries in common with a lot of other injuries that occur however they haven't been recognised because of us being women. There's estimated to be around 17000 to 18000 women that suffer with these injuries. As has been spoken about before 85 percent of women incur injuries during birth but it's not just injuries that occur; it is also the emotional side of these injuries that can have a lasting impact as well on women. With these emotional injuries they also impact their loved ones that are there to support them because the husbands partners aren't able to support them because of the injuries but they can help the babies which is great.ACC needs to improve more around women's health with these birth injuries. It is great that this support is occurring but there are other injuries as has been mentioned and sometimes women's health gets overlooked and they don't get that support that is needed. Also I'd like to point out that ACC has had its problems around personal information and that's a concern for us in the ACT Party because women especially do not want their information or injuries shared around with other people. So it's very important that we make sure that these things do not continue. The other thing is the estimated cost is an unknown because we're not 100 percent sure exactly how many will be able to claim. So it is a bit of a problem there on financing within the ACC scheme.Overall ACT's very happy for the maternity birth injury side of this bill. However there are the other matters that I'd like to raise. The main concern is actually raising the board from eight to nine. As said in the bill a wide range of specialists and stakeholders is required on the board. That's fine; I agree with that. However as my colleague in National pointed out we have already appointed new board members in February then again in August and then again in September. So if we were looking at having a better structure within our board then how come the ACC when they were appointing the board did not look at this maybe in August or September when they were appointing these new board members?The other thing that is really good to see is that they are ensuring the legislation certainty that dependants of claimants will not be disentitled for future injury entitlements covered under the ACC scheme following the claimant's assisted death in accordance with the End of Life Choice Act 2019. We're very proud for this to be included in the other matters.Overall we're very very happy as I said with most of these but we've also got to take into account that there are other matters—who will be paying for it and if you are aware that the ACC levies for the employees will be raised in the next coming year. So that means that more money will be going out of our everyday - New Zealanders' pay packets and they're already struggling. That is something that we have to be aware of that more money will have to be found in some of the areas within the ACC financing and that's usually out of our hard-working taxpayers' dollars.The next thing is that there are seven technical changes. Now within these technical changes most of them are just fixing up definitions which is fine. But there's also one that's enabling the ACC compensation corporation to use the most recent employer filing to Inland Revenue when determining the client's weekly compensation. This I don't have a problem with because that will ensure that the person that is off work due to an injury will most likely get 80 percent of their wages. Because at this stage there's a lot of paperwork that employers normally have to go through to prove earnings for employees or the employees themselves have to find that.So also the other thing I'd bring up that hasn't been mentioned is aligning the ACC penalty rates with the IRD's rules by changing the 1 percent monthly interest rate from the day after the levy invoice is due rather than 30 days after the payment is due. I understand that's just general business but it also needed to be pointed out to people that even though you think you have 30 days after not to be penalised because people do tend to sometimes put their ACC bills aside and not organise payments. So this needed to be pointed out.But most of all in general ACT is very happy with this bill. It is moving forward to help women with the injuries around birth. It's great that people have stepped forward and put petitions to the Parliament here to speak up for these injuries. But most of all is for the New Zealanders hopefully listening tonight to be made aware that submissions are open and come forward and speak what has occurred to them.In the bill in Schedule 2 is a list of maternity birth injuries. I would hope that people will come forward after reading these and even others that may have occurred that have not been put here that they may be recognised possibly in the future that have occurred. And especially I feel also the mental health side of things may need to be looked at a little bit more because that is a huge thing for a lot of women that suffer these birth injuries. So I commend this to the House.