Hutchison Paul: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6494] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (NZ National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 This so-called Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill in no way reflects its title because it is a tax on ordinary New Zealand motorists. Part 2 absolutely puts that to rest. Part 2 deals with the rate of levies the levy categories the collection of levies challenges to levies power in respect of small amounts of levy and on and on it goes to regulations relating to levies. 
We have indeed just witnessed a rare spectacle. It is excellent to see the Minister of Health here but it was somewhat extraordinary to see the member for Otaki Darren Hughes on his knees to her and one does question her motives for being here. As my colleague Phil Heatley quite rightly pointed out is she here because she really is looking at this bill not from the point of view of accident prevention and rehabilitation but from the point of view of bringing in a sneaky health tax? We do not know what her reply to Darren Hughes was but we are deeply concerned about it. 
This part of the bill is the one that deals with the rate of levies. It is quite sobering reading when one looks through the details. Clause 6 “Rate of levies” adds a new subsection: “(4) The levy payable … is payable—(a) at the rate or rates per litre or other unit prescribed by regulations made under this Act;”. Well we have seen a 25 percent increase this year. What will we see next year under this rapacious taxing Labour Government—the very Government that stated on its “credit card” that there would be no more taxes? Yet here is a classic example of a bill whose title totally fabricates the real meaning of this part which focuses on how that gathering of taxes will occur. 
But I do want to dwell for a minute on the technical aspects of the levy-gathering that the Government has confined merely to either fuel—which is bad enough—or the vehicle which many people would view as also pretty bad particularly in light of the view that this Government has encouraged a monopolistic framework instead of the competitive framework that was brought in several years ago by the National Government and which very sadly reverted to a monopoly under this present Labour Government. 
I say “sadly” because when the competitive element was brought in we saw an immediate shake-up within the Accident Compensation Corporation. We saw greater attention to case management; we saw huge attention to early rehabilitation and we saw a great focus on improvement in the workplace. It was as though the corporation was suddenly galvanised into action to look at how best this insurance could serve the people of New Zealand rather than the situation now where we have a monopoly very much prone to going its own way no matter what. There are no checks and balances on it. In this last year we have seen a 25 percent increase and who knows what we can expect next year?