LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) to the Minister for ACC: Does he stand by all his recent statements on ACC’s new clinical pathway for victims of sexual abuse?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for ACC): I do stand by my recent statements, but I did make one numerical error yesterday when I said that 70 percent or 260 claims in February had not been processed at the end of March. The 70 percent figure was correct, I misread the 260 figure, and the correct number was 206.
Hon Darren Hughes: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. My point of order flows from the answer the Minister has just given to the House. If he was aware that he made an error in answering a question, surely he should have come to the House before this point, at the first opportunity, to correct the answer. This is not the first opportunity to correct an answer he has given previously.
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I only became aware of the error when I asked officials to go through all the answers that I had given and to check them. It could have been possible for me to take a point of order. I thought it was easier during the course of the question to put the record straight.
Mr SPEAKER: It seems a perfectly reasonable course of action.
Hon Darren Hughes: Except that the Standing Orders require Ministers to correct their answers immediately; as soon as they become aware of an error. The first available opportunity would have been at 2 o’clock today. We have based our questions on an exchange with this particular Minister about a difference of opinion in respect of the material he has been using. I think it is unfair on the questioner, who is trying to prepare supplementary questions to the Minster, to have to wait until a convenient time for him, not for the House, to correct the answer.
Mr SPEAKER: I think the member is being a bit unreasonable. The question is high on the Order Paper. The Minister did not take up the time of the House; he can answer this question today. The question actually asks: does he stand by all his recent statements? A question like that is an excellent opportunity to make that minor adjustment—a misread figure—to the answer given yesterday. I think we can be a bit reasonable.
Lynne Pillay: Why does he continue to insist that there is a need for a review of these repugnant new guidelines when yesterday he said that the figure of six in terms of people who were accepted for counselling throughout New Zealand in February 2010 could be even double that, when any child could tell him that 12 people is still a shocking reduction from 300 people a month?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member referred to the guidelines as repugnant. I remind that member that they were launched by the Hon Steve Maharey.
Hon Trevor Mallard: No, they weren’t
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I have tabled the picture. They were launched by the Hon Steve Maharey in March 2008, so the premise of the member’s question is incorrect.
Dr Jackie Blue: What advice has the Minister received on the average time frames for processing sensitive claims before and after the changes were made in 2009?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The average time for claims to be processed prior to the changes was 63 working days. This has reduced to 47 working days, but that is still too long. A key issue for the review is that of how this can be further improved. The objective I would like to see met is that the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) turn round the applications within 7 days of all the information being received from providers.
Lynne Pillay: Why does the Minister insist on chanting ACC’s rejection rate under Labour as some sort of argument for not facing facts today when rejection rates skyrocketed to 60 percent last year under his watch, even before imposing his new clinical pathway?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The point in making reference to the fact that the decline rate for sensitive claims grew from 4 percent to over 50 percent during Labour’s time—
Lynne Pillay: Now it’s 90 percent.
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: That is right. What I am saying is that over 2,400 sensitive claims were declined in 2008 and not one Labour member raised the matter when Labour was in Government. I suspect that we should call that a double standard.
Dr Jackie Blue: Did the Minister offer to consult Labour members on the membership and the terms of reference for the clinical review of ACC’s sensitive claims management; if so, what was the result?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes, I did so in writing, but Labour rejected that offer. This illustrates that Labour has been far more interested in making politics of this issue than in actually providing the best standard of care for those with sexual abuse claims. I am surprised that members opposite are criticising the person chairing that review when Dr Disley was a mental health commissioner under the previous Government.
Lynne Pillay: What advice did he provide to Simon Power before his statement today at the rape prevention symposium that “The Government has already taken some steps to provide survivors with greater support”, when he knows that that statement is clearly not true?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I commend the work that Simon Power, Paula Bennett, and Tariana Turia are doing and the announcements they made today about the most effective way in which New Zealand can deal with sexual abuse and assault, and that is by preventing it from occurring in the first place. That is why I think that everybody in this House should welcome the announcement from Simon Power.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1004/S00427.htm
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