Flavell Te Ururoa: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16648] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou kua hui mai i tenei po. On first impressions the purpose of this bill is pretty good. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee suggested that the amendments will maintain a fair and sustainable accident compensation scheme by reducing the incidence and impact of personal injury. This is an excellent objective which I believe would find support right around this House. Yet a comment was made in the submissions presented to the select committee by Phillippa Martin of the Support Network for the Aldehyde and Solvent Affected (NZ) Ltd which I think must be given some serious consideration. That comment was that the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has developed a culture of denial. I will say it again—a culture of denial. It is a fairly hard-line comment to make. A culture of denial is like an alcoholic who is determined to deny he or she has a drinking problem or like a perpetrator of domestic violence who is set on making excuses for his or her aggression. A culture of denial is what we might like to talk about when we fail to recognise that it is institutional racism that is restricting opportunities for persons of colour. We could say that a culture of denial might well represent the catastrophe of climate change like a nation walking head first into an energy-depleted future ignoring the inevitable warning signs along the way. 
How could such a strong concept apply in the case of work-related injuries and vocational rehabilitation? The recommendation from Phillippa Martin was that the ACC mindset must change from finding every means to stop paying out on valid claims to finding every means to affirm a claim of honesty. In many respects this sums up the Maori experience of injury prevention rehabilitation and compensation: denial of entitlements denial of access to information and denial of opportunities. It is all well and good that there are mechanisms in place that supposedly cover work-related injuries compensation eligibility and the processes around vocational rehabilitation and independence. All workers have a right to expect that their workplaces the work they do and the people they work for and with are not compromising their health. Keeping people safe and healthy within their paid and voluntary work environment should be a right and not a privilege. Yet for far too many tangata whenua such protections are anything but automatic. 
My experience is that the ACC is the hoha of a Maori MP’s life. Far too many people come across our paths with anecdotes of the frustrations they have experienced in trying to swim through the maze of processes that are often too long and drawn out. For many of our constituents life appears to be about barriers and obstacles emerging on a regular basis. Last November Dr Fiona Cram released her report on occupational safety and health which revealed what most of our constituents tell us. It revealed that awareness and monitoring of occupational safety and health issues for Maori is sorely lacking. Why should this be? Well what we all know is that the patterns of occupational segregation tend to maintain Maori in more high-risk employment. The jobs that hit the all-time high-risk stakes are in agriculture manufacturing construction and forestry—all areas in which Maori are overrepresented. 
Then there is the shift work industry where again Maori and Pasifika workers exist in high numbers. Shift work as those who have done it know is to be blunt the pits. If members stay late in this place they will hear the real stories of workplace risk from the Maori and Pasifika all-star cast that cleans these buildings and keeps these buildings secure locks up afterwards turns down the lights and then gets ready to do it all over again for another day ahead. Actually their voices should have been invited to this debate to tell us about another reality: the reality of broken sleep obesity hypertension ulcers heart disease diabetes and other disorders that simply come with the trade with the job—and all for minimum rates of pay. In fact in 2004 the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee detailed the full range of work-related disorders associated with shift work such as the factors I mentioned earlier and including psychological and relationship disorders less time with family and friends and eating habits being broken. Shift workers are unable to commit to any other interest—to being at school concerts or for child care even. Their body clocks are stuffed. I am thinking about nurses prison officers night-duty reporters fire officers police and accident and emergency workers. The ironic thing is that many of these professions are in fact our essential industries. They are areas where we expect workers to have their full wits about them. Then there are the workers in the hospitality industry people looking after heavy-duty machinery people stocking supermarket shelves road markers or those deep sea fishing crews trawling through the oceans for months at a time. 
I have taken a bit of time to look at these issues to do with the culture of denial because we believe that no matter what changes are made to the compensation framework if the vital issues of access participation and outcomes for Maori are not taken into particular account then progress will inevitably be limited. With the Maori Party’s support changes are being made regarding work-related mental injury and we support the intention for the cover to help ensure appropriate treatment and to facilitate rehabilitation. 
The Maori Party is pleased to endorse any developments that seek to improve access to compensation for some disenfranchised groups such as seasonal casual workers those in non-standard work those mentally injured by trauma those between work and young people who are injured. But the single crucial issue for us is that if people are taxed and levied for accident compensation cover and are then denied their entitlements then we can hardly call this a fair and sustainable accident compensation scheme. It would seem that there are still some technical issues within the bill that serve to deny entitlements to those who really need it the most. As an example we were interested in the submission from the Human Rights Commission which drew attention to the test of proving whether a mental injury is “reasonably expected”—a test that is not applied to physical injury. The commission saw this as being unjustifiably discriminatory and in effect establishing an extra hurdle for people suffering mental injury. 
We support the intent of the bill in making the assessment easier to understand allowing earlier access to minimum weekly compensation and increasing the rate of compensation. These are all positive steps in the right direction. But again it comes down to the spirit and intent of the five founding Woodhouse principles which would suggest that further improvements to the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act are needed to give full effect to the spirit of the legislation. The bottom line is that we know that Maori tend to present late across all conditions and outcomes of workplace injury. Workplace awareness which is knowing they have a right to talk about their injuries is vital. So too is having access to a case manager at the Accident Compensation Corporation who will work through the scenarios and answer questions such as: “What will I have to do?” “Am I entitled to a cleaner?” “Can I be transferred to lighter duties for the same pay?” and “Can work point me in the direction of a physio?”. Far too many Maori stuck in low-paid work do not want to admit that they have an injury—that they are suffering from occupational overuse syndrome backache or even the impact of a trauma—because they fear that such honesty will lead to their dismissal. 
We in this Parliament must confront the culture of denial head-on and realise that hazardous work conditions jeopardise workers’ health and safety. We must confront the reality that in 2003 Maori workers had the highest workplace injury claim rate and that most of these injuries are preventable. Why should we do this? Well I will leave the last word to Dr John Broughton who wrote the first comprehensive review of Maori injury. This comment is part of the context that makes us know why we must support this bill. He stated: “Although the frond will eventually die it need not wither or die so soon or before its time.” Kia ora tatou.