Dyson Ruth: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Dyson Ruth: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:6642] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for ACC) 
: 
 I move  
That the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. The bill performs two main functions. Firstly it establishes an accident compensation petrol levy and provides for changes in the levy rate. Currently under the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act an accident compensation amount is collected alongside the petrol excise duty. That amount is not literally a levy. Consequently it is not possible to change the petrol amount without either making legislative amendments to the Customs and Excise Act or by affecting Crown revenue. This bill amends both the Customs and Excise Act and the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to address those two issues. 
The second function of the bill is to reverse the changes to the accident compensation appeal regime that came by way of the District Courts Amendment Act 2002. That amendment Act will repeal section 162 of the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act which requires that appeals to the High Court be either by leave to appeal being granted by the District Court or by special leave being granted by the High Court. Consequently people would be free to appeal to the High Court regardless of the circumstances. That will potentially impact on the High Court’s workload and it also has cost implications for accident compensation. So the bill preserves the requirement under the existing section 162 of the Act that leave of the District Court is sought prior to an appeal to the High Court. 
The key elements of the amendment bill before the House for its third reading today are as follows: formal establishment of the petrol amount as a petrol levy under the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act; provision to enable the levy applied to petrol to also be applied to any other category of fuel that may be prescribed by regulations to enable future options for accident compensation levies on other fuels as described in schedule 2 of the Customs and Excise Act; provision to set the initial petrol levy rate at 5.08c per litre for the 2003-04 levy year and regulations to set the rate of the petrol levy; amendment of the Customs and Excise Act so that any future changes to the fuel levy do not require a legislative amendment to schedule 3 of that Act whenever the levy rate changes; provision for regulations to enable a fuel refund system as the levy will be subject to the levy refund provisions set out in the legislation; amendment to section 236 of the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act so that challenges to levies do not apply because the accident compensation petrol levy will be included in the definition of “duty” in the Customs and Excise Act; and reverses to the changes to the accident compensation appeals regime that came by way of the District Court Amendment Act 2002. 
The need for changes in the way that the Accident Compensation Corporation’s motor vehicle account is funded is due to the cost increases that account faces. Those increases have resulted primarily from improved estimates of long-term rehabilitation costs for seriously injured claimants and underlying cost increases. As the motor vehicle account has the highest proportion of serious injuries of all accident compensation accounts the improved estimates affect the motor vehicle account disproportionately more than the other accident compensation accounts. The Accident Compensation Corporation has an legislative requirement to collect sufficient revenue to fully fund all the costs associated with the motor vehicle account for the 2003-04 levy year so the higher costs associated with that account need to be met by motorists. 
The Government considered the options for the best way to fund the motor vehicle account in December last year following public consultation. Previously increases in the motor vehicle account costs have been absorbed into the annual vehicle licensing fee levy. The Government considered that the cost of vehicle licensing may have reached a point where further increases could lead to adverse social impacts as some people already have difficulty in paying the licence fee. The funding of increased costs through the petrol levy is considered to be a fairer approach. That approach was certainly supported by a large number of New Zealanders during the Accident Compensation Corporation’s consultation on options for funding the motor vehicle account. It should also be noted that the proposed alignments align with the Government’s intention of reducing motor vehicle injuries and that further work is also being undertaken on the long-term funding of the motor vehicle account in the light of the New Zealand Transport Strategy. 
In conclusion I thank the members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee the officials of the committee and the officials of both the Department of Labour and the Accident Compensation Corporation for their constructive work on this bill. I support its further progress.