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Acc (2005)

LABOUR’S VISION

Over thirty years ago, Labour introduced an accident compensation scheme, which was a major extension of the previous workers’ compensation model. It extended coverage to all injured people, regardless of accident and regardless of fault, but on the basis that their right to sue in the Courts was removed. The “social contract” entered into at that time was real compensation and complete rehabilitation in return for the removal of the right to sue. The founding principles were:

Community responsibility,
Comprehensive entitlement,
Complete rehabilitation,
Real compensation,
Administrative efficiency.

The Labour-led Government’s Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001 reaffirmed those principles and provided for a fair and sustainable scheme that emphasises injury prevention while minimising the economic, social and personal impact of injuries.

Labour is committed to ensuring the long-term viability of this scheme, and will not return to a system of privatised work place insurance where those who suffer injuries face difficulties with access to treatment and compensation.

LABOUR’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Labour has:

Returned ACC workplace cover to a full social insurance scheme, rejected the costly private insurance model, and refocused the system on injury prevention;
Kept ACC levies down and rebuilt a financially robust scheme. By comparison levies in overseas schemes have generally escalated;
Reintroduced lump sum payments for permanent impairment;
Improved rehabilitation, including social and vocational rehabilitation as well as treatment;
Launched partnership programmes with approved employers;
Rewarded employers with levy discounts for good injury prevention practices;
Extended the ‘no fault’ provisions of the ACC scheme to injury that results from medical treatment;
Introduced a Code of ACC Claimants’ Rights, and improved claimant satisfaction rates;
Improved access to compensation for seasonal and casual workers and for people on parental leave.

PRIORITIES FOR LABOUR’S THIRD TERM

Labour will:

Maintain ACC as a fully public social insurance scheme which focuses on injury prevention, along with fair and effective treatment and rehabilitation provisions;
Improve ACC recognition and compensation for occupational disease and extend Schedule 2 of the Act to ensure fairer cover for people who have an injury from a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection;
Review the costs for review and appeals to ensure fair access for applicants;
Extend the discounts for safe work practices to include self-employed and small businesses;
Develop a cross-agency response to counselling services for victims of traumatic events;
Continue to move further towards compliance with ILO Article 17 by lowering claimants’ treatment costs;
Continue to implement the NZ Injury Prevention Strategy with evaluation of programmes;
Review the structure of all ACC accounts;
Ensure continued stakeholder representation on the ACC Board and the Ministerial Advisory Panel and continue to help ACC improve its performance through the encouragement of tri-partite relationships on injury prevention;
Promote a collaborative approach with the Ministry of Social Development for injury prevention programmes;
Require ACC to develop treatment and rehabilitation processes, and vocational rehabilitation and training/education for injured persons who are unable to return to pre-accident employment, so that they have the best possible opportunity to return to secure, well paid, employment without loss of actual or potential earnings;
Review implementation of the Code of Claimants’ Rights and where appropriate strengthen sanctions for breaches;
Introduce consistent quality standards for emergency air ambulance services and develop better coordination and integration of emergency road and air ambulance services nationwide;
Continue the work of the Injury Surveillance Management Advisory Panel on collecting injury data across all Government Departments and agencies, to get consistent data on which to base injury prevention resources and programmes;
Encourage more effective union involvement in ACC partnership programmes for accredited employers to ensure the rights and concerns of workers are appropriately reflected in the programme.