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Digest No. 1746

Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill 2009 (2010 No 90-2)

Date of Introduction: 22 October 2009
Portfolio: ACC
Select Committee: Industrial Relations
Date report presented: 12 February 2010
Published: 18 February 2010Prepared by John McSoriley BA LL.B, BarristerLegislative AnalystP: (04) 471-9626 (Ext. 9626)F: (04) 471-1250 Caution: This Digest was prepared to assist consideration of the Bill by members of Parliament. It has no official status.Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, it should not be taken as a complete or authoritative guide to the Bill. Other sources should be consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the Bill.

Purpose

The main aim of the Bill as introduced is to amend the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001 (the Act) to make changes to:

  • the funding of the ACC scheme;
  • the relationship between "government agencies" and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC);
  • financial reporting and accountability [1]   .
  • The Bill is intended to extend the date for fully funding residual claims liabilities from 2014 to 2019, set a final valuation of all residual claims liabilities as valued at 30 June 2009, " .... and fold the residual liabilities into the main accounts" [2]   .
  • "The Bill also allows for experience rating and risk sharing in relation to levy rates in the Work Account, as well as risk rating on the Motor Vehicle Account. The Bill includes some operational improvements and technical changes to improve flexibility" [3]   .

Main changes to the Bill

The Select Committee has recommended largely technical or drafting changes to this Bill. The following seems to be the main substantive change.

Disentitlement for certain imprisoned offenders

The Bill as introduced provides that the Accident Compensation Corporation (the Corporation) must not provide any entitlements under Schedule 1 (headed: "Entitlements") to a claimant if:

  • the claimant suffers a personal injury in the course of committing an offence; and
  • the offence is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of 2 years or more; and
  • the claimant is sentenced to imprisonment for committing the offence; and
  • the Corporation would, but for this section, be liable to provide entitlements to the claimant for the personal injury (Part 1, Clause 11, inserting substituted Section 122 of the Act, subsection (1)).
  • The Select Committee has recommended that the claimant be subject to this provision if he or she is sentenced to home detention.

The Select Committee has also recommended that in addition, the Corporation must not provide any entitlements under Schedule 1 to the following persons if the Corporation would, but for subsection (1) (described above), be liable to provide entitlements to any of them in relation to a deceased claimant's personal injury:

  • the surviving spouse or partner of the deceased claimant;
  • any child of the deceased claimant;
  • any other dependant of the deceased claimant (Part 1, Clause 11, inserting substituted Section 122 of the Act, subsection (1A)).

  • The Select Committee has also recommended that as well as treatment entitlements, a claimant under this provision is also entitled to receive "any ancillary service related to treatment referred to in clause 3(1) of Schedule 1 of the Act (Part 1, Clause 11, inserting substituted Section 122 of the Act, amended subsection (2)).

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Except for educational purposes permitted under the Copyright Act 1994, no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including information storage and retrieval systems, other than by Members of Parliament in the course of their official duties, without the consent of the Parliamentary Librarian, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.This document may also be available through commercial online services and may be viewed and reproduced in accordance with the conditions applicable to those services.

  1. Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill, 2009 No 90-1, Explanatory note, General policy statement, p. 1.   [back]
  2. Ibid.   [back]
  3. Ibid., pp. 1 and 2.   [back]