9. DARIEN FENTON (Labour) to the Minister for ACC: What is the basis for the changes in the treatment of using holiday pay towards the costs of being injured at work in the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill?

Hon PANSY WONG (Acting Minister for ACC) : This is a reinstatement of policy back to the pre-2008 position. It is consistent with the way other Government agencies, such as the Inland Revenue Department and Work and Income, treat annual leave as income for the purposes of income tax and a calculation of benefit entitlement.

Darien Fenton: Why did the Minister ignore the advice from Treasury, which opposed these changes on the basis that they would save just $1 million and that the savings were small compared to the fairness concerns?

Hon PANSY WONG: The member said that it was a saving of only $1 million. That is typical of Labour’s loose attitude towards spending taxpayers’ money. It explains why the net liabilities of the Accident Compensation Corporation have soared from $4 billion to $12.7 billion, and claim costs rose by 57 percent in 4 years under the previous Labour Government’s watch.

Darien Fenton: How will the Minister justify to injured workers and their families the plan to take their holiday pay, or is the Minister being a scrooge and are these changes to accident compensation just the beginning of the National Government’s plan to reduce holidays for everyone?

Hon PANSY WONG: There is no such plan. That member sits on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee, which is right now considering the bill. I think she has plenty of opportunity to debate the issue there.

Darien Fenton: If the Minister were injured during the summer adjournment, would he expect the accident compensation scheme to demand that he use his holiday pay to recover?

Hon PANSY WONG: I am pleased the Associate Minister has the delegated authority for injury prevention; she will try very hard for New Zealanders to have a safe summer holiday break.

Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am sorry; I half expected one of my colleagues to take the point of order. There was a direct question about the use of holiday pay for accident compensation, and the response related to the delegated authority for injury prevention. There was no link between the question and the answer.

Mr SPEAKER: If the question had been an objective question that asked purely about the use of holiday pay in the event of injury, I would have been able to assist the member much more. But the question was a hypothetical question about the Minister for ACC getting injured. Under such circumstances, I do not think I can expect any particular answer of the Minister answering the question. We need more objective questions. [Interruption] I am on my feet.