The Swamp Report: Nick Smith

Showing posts with label Nick Smith. Show all posts

01 April 2016

Sexual violence services – the real story

A blog post by Jan Logie

What has really led to the Government’s changing stance on funding for sexual violence services?
People have been congratulating me on this news yesterday and I have to admit working with the sector through this process has given meaning to my time in Parliament and I am proud of the work we have done on this. I am a bit embarrassed by the congratulations in the context of the thousands of submissions and years and years of work by incredible advocates which really got the result.
While I’ll need to see the dollars in the budget, and hear that the Government is working closely with the specialist providers, especially Nga Kaitiaki Mauri, to design the new model before I relax, I do want to reflect on the journey to this point.
The 70s and 80s saw women coming together to voluntarily support women who had experienced sexual violence. The Government provided some funding from the mid 80s. There was a period of new general services, the Pacific Island Women’s Project, and kaupapa Maori services being set up to respond to the growing need. These groups were advocating for the prevention of sexual violence – law reform and social change as well as supporting victim/survivors. It wasn’t until the mid 90s that we had the first ethnic women’s organisation, Shakti and in the late 90s the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust set up. There are still obvious gaps.
ACC alongside MSD were the major funders for sexual violence support services. The services were always under-valued and certainly not recognised for the amazing life-saving and at times world leading responses to sexual violence that they were and are. Sexual violence has been one of those very difficult topics to talk about in any context so that always made the services a bit of an easy target for funding cuts.
Despite Maori women being more likely to experience sexual violence in New Zealand and kaupapa Maori approaches being far more successful we have lost almost all of our specialist kaupapa Maori sexual violence services. There was a time when there were over twenty services but now there are fewer than five.
The Taskforce for Action was initiated by Labour in the wake of public horror about Louise Nicholas’s experiences. Louise did not have access to the right help, from our justice system or social services, when she needed it and that is one of the reasons she has been so actively advocating for increased funding for years.
The Taskforce for Action came out in 2009 calling for a national prevention plan and proper resourcing of the sexual violence sectors, basically all the same things that the select committee has recommended again 6 years later.
Maori and non-Maori specialists gave hundreds of hours of their time, voluntarily, in the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence. They spent hours and hours strategizing and organising and lobbying to try and ensure that victim/survivors had access to the services they needed. If this had been implemented there would have been no need for the select committee inquiry.
But even while the National party Minister for Justice called the Taskforce for Action the best road map the country had ever had for addressing sexual violence, the Government was in the process of gutting ACC support for victim/survivors. The Government told ACC that they had to make savings. In 2009 they saved $3.2billion dollars by going after, amongst other things, the “low hanging fruit” of sensitive claims. These changes resulted in a 36% decline the number of claims being lodged and even more shockingly the number of accepted claims going from 60% to 3.6% in just two years. Specialist agencies stopped using ACC because they thought it was unsafe for survivors and the number of ACC counsellors halved. During the inquiry into sexual violence funding we heard from a man whose partner had killed herself because she couldn’t get the support she needed over this time.
Many therapists and counsellors and volunteers just kept going, under increasing strain themselves, because they knew that people were depending on them. This was a truly awful time in New Zealand’s history.
Public concern over these changes forced Minister Nick Smith to initiate a review in 2010.The Disley report in 2010 made fourteen recommendations to fix the mess. Considerable effort has been made since then by ACC, the community and others to try and restore ACC. In the select committee report much has been made of the improvements to ACC. A new model is in place and it is much better but we are still not there yet.
Ahead of the budget and future work, I just want to celebrate the bloody minded tenacity of survivors and advocates who have kept going through this very dismal time. I genuinely and wholeheartedly hope the Government doesn’t let us all down again.

© 1996-2015 The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

https://blog.greens.org.nz/2016/04/01/sexual-violence-services-the-real-story/

18 September 2012

ACC's suicide snub adds to family pain

An article from the Dominion Post by Marty Sharpe

The number of families of suicide victims granted support from ACC has declined since changes to legislation in 2010.
A woman whose daughter took her own life after suffering an abusive relationship said the changes meant surviving family were not considered victims.
The woman said her 21-year-old daughter took her life in Christchurch in November 2010. She left behind a young son.
The woman, now a sickness beneficiary and living in Wellington, had been struggling to pay the $7000 for her daughter's funeral.
She sought help from ACC but was told the corporation no longer provided cover for families of suicide victims, unless the suicide was due to a mental injury caused by physical injury, sexual abuse or a work-related mental injury.
"I've got it [the funeral bill] down to about $4500 . . . It's just been devastating. It really has. I don't think people know what it's like. Anyone in that situation needs all the help they can get," the woman said.
Figures provided by ACC under the Official Information Act show the number of suicide claims accepted by the corporation dropped from 347 in the 2009-10 year to 127 in 2010-11 and just 51 in the 2011-12 year. The average number of suicides over the past five years was 543.
Between July 2008 and July 2012 the corporation paid $19.8 million to families of suicide victims. This was paid in weekly compensation, childcare, survivor grants and funeral grants.
Labour changed the law in 2008 to class all suicides as accidents.
When former ACC minister Nick Smith changed the law two years ago, he said suicide was not an accident and should be considered a health issue similar to heart disease or cancer. The original act in 1972 excluded suicide, he said.
One of the country's top lawyers specialising in ACC legislation, John Miller, was not surprised at the drop of claims.
"ACC will just knock them back and people will be in such a state they won't often fight it.
"The problem is these people leave dependants. Just because a husband or partner can't cope with bankruptcy or something like that, is it right that they leave the family bereft of income?"
Labour ACC spokesman Andrew Little said anyone who took their life had clearly lost perspective and was incapable of understanding the consequences of their action.
"No family asks for a family member to commit suicide and it can leave them in a very difficult situation. At a time when ACC has made a surplus of over $3 billion, it's not as if this is an area they cannot afford to cover.
"We will review this when back in office," he said.
ACC Minister Judith Collins said the objective of Mr Smith's reform was "to ensure ACC is affordable, sustainable and fair for claimants and levy payers".
"My priorities for ACC are to ensure entitlements are delivered transparently and fairly to those who need them," she said.

HOW NICK SMITH CHANGED THE RULES
In 2001 the Labour government introduced changes to the Accident Compensation Corporation Act that meant entitlements were paid to families of victims whose suicide was the result of mental illness (ie not necessarily a mental injury). In 2008 this was extended to cover all suicides.
This meant families of suicide victims could receive a funeral grant, a survivor's grant of around $5000, funding for counselling and a share of income-related compensation for dependants.
Two years later National's ACC Minister Nick Smith changed the law, so families of suicide victims only received entitlements if ACC established the person who committed suicide was not able to appreciate the consequences of their action, or that a previously covered mental injury caused, or contributed to, the suicide.

24 August 2012

Privacy breach a warning for others

An article from the Nelson Mail by Laura Basham

In a chilling revelation, an inquiry into the case of ACC emailing sensitive details about more than 6000 claimants to the wrong person reveals it could have happened to any big government agency.
A spreadsheet containing details of the 6000-plus claimants - including more than 200 handled by the ACC's sensitive claims unit dealing with rape and sexual abuse victims - was emailed to Auckland woman Bronwyn Pullar after an ACC staffer mistakenly clicked on it and sent it as an attachment without noticing.
An inquiry yesterday found simple human error was to blame for the breach, which has so far claimed the scalps of a government minister, the chairman and chief executive of ACC and could yet claim further victims as the hunt continues for the person who leaked an email from Pullar support person, former National Party president Michelle Boag, to ACC Minister Judith Collins.
Former ACC minister and Nelson MP Nick Smith said today he was pleased that the reports concluded that Ms Pullar did not receive any extra entitlements or benefits as a consequence of her friendship with him or that she was known through the pipfruit industry and to former ACC director John McCliskie. The inquiries were initiated out of allegations that because Ms Pullar had been involved with the National Party, she had received entitlements, he said.
"These reports show that is not true and that both myself and the board were very clear Bronwyn Pullar should not be treated in any way differently from any other claimant," said Dr Smith.
However, he said he still regretted writing the letter attesting to Ms Pullar's health prior to her accident, that ultimately triggered his resignation from his ministerial portfolios in March.
Dr Smith also noted that the system issue that led to the accidental email of a large file of client information could happen to other government agencies, and said there needed to be a broader review of systems to ensure that did not happen.
The release of the reports concludes the investigations on the ACC issues, but Dr Smith would not be drawn on the issue of his potential return to Cabinet, saying it was up to Prime Minister John Key. "We'll just have to see how it goes."
The report released yesterday remains silent on whether ACC was justified in going to police over claims that Ms Pullar tried to use the data breach to guarantee her benefit for two years - despite four members of the independent review team listening to a tape recording of the meeting where the blackmail threat was alleged to have been made. Police later tossed out the complaint because of a lack of evidence but ACC has so far refused to apologise to Ms Pullar over the claim.
The head of the review team, former Australian privacy commissioner Malcolm Crompton, said the blackmail allegation was outside the inquiry's terms of reference.
The inquiry, commissioned by the Privacy Commissioner and ACC, was one of two reports released yesterday into the mass privacy breach. The second was by Auditor General Lyn Provost. Both reports call for a culture change at ACC, which acting chairwoman Paula Rebstock promised yesterday would occur after the privacy breach raised "profound questions about our management of private information".
Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff said the breach threw the spotlight on the use of personal information by government agencies.
"Public sector agencies collect information from us on a very large scale, often by compulsion, in a situation where we really have no alternative but to provide it. The information is held these days in vast electronic databases. That information is the necessary lifeblood of those agencies and a major business asset for those agencies. But the bargain for us, the citizens, the clients, is we need to be able to trust those agencies to protect our information and not to misuse it or lose it."
Both reports released yesterday raise questions not just about the privacy breach, but also over the treatment received by Ms Pullar, who was a former high-flying business woman and moved in National Party circles. Mrs Provost found Ms Pullar received special treatment after she approached a former business associate, Mr McCliskie, who was on the ACC board, over her case and he set up a meeting with senior managers.
"Although meetings with such senior ACC officials are not without precedent, few claimants have that opportunity," she noted.

Culture of fear at ACC

An article from the Dominion Post by Phil Kitchin

Further action could yet be taken against senior ACC managers who failed to act on whistleblower Bronwyn Pullar's first warnings of a massive privacy breach.
As a damning independent report into the breach was published yesterday, ACC Minister Judith Collins has revealed that senior management were operating in a culture of fear at the time.
The report vindicates Ms Pullar, who revealed the breach after making repeated complaints to ACC management, board and staff members about privacy and other alleged breaches of the corporation's codes and laws.
Ms Pullar, an ACC client, was inadvertently sent private details of 6500 fellow clients. The information contained names and details of hundreds of people from ACC's sensitive claims unit, including rape and incest victims.
Since The Dominion Post revealed the privacy breach in March, the fallout from the scandal has included the resignations of Cabinet minister Nick Smith and chief executive Ralph Stewart, and the departure from ACC's board of chairman John Judge and directors John McCliskie and Rob Campbell.
Ms Collins said yesterday she had been told by Mr Stewart that, when he arrived in August last year, "even senior management worked in a culture of fear ... people felt they could not tell others about what had happened".
Asked whether she believed ACC should take action against senior managers involved in the case, she said it was difficult to comment on individual staff.
Interim ACC chairwoman Paula Rebstock said yesterday that she could not talk about individual managers either, but ACC would look at performance issues and take appropriate action. The corporation accepted it had a poor culture on privacy and would accept a string of recommendations to change that culture, she said.
Ms Collins said she expressed concerns about ACC's culture to Mr Judge on more than one occasion, and said she wanted clients treated with respect, courtesy and professionalism. The board did not seem to understand "just how important privacy was", and in June she dumped Mr Judge, Mr McCliskie and Mr Campbell by not renewing their directorships. She said it was a serious error of leadership by the board not to tell Mr Stewart of a list of serious allegations made by Ms Pullar at a meeting with ACC senior managers Philip Murch and Hans Verberne in December.
An ACC report of that meeting, given to Ms Collins three days after The Dominion Post exposed the privacy breach, said Ms Pullar threatened to go to the media and would withhold details of the breach unless she was given a guaranteed benefit. But a tape recording Ms Pullar made at the meeting showed the allegations were false, as was the statement by ACC that no specific details on the breach were given to the managers.
The report to Ms Collins also said that, given the serious nature of the breach, the details should have been escalated to more senior ACC management but were not.
Inquiries by police and the auditor-general later showed that statement was also wrong, and that the two managers at the meeting informed two superior managers and the board secretary about it.
Ms Rebstock said yesterday that, if any allegations in the report to Ms Collins were incorrect, "we will correct it". The original report was still on ACC's website yesterday.
Ms Pullar said she was pleased the report had vindicated concerns she had been trying to raise for years, and she was heartened that Ms Collins said all its recommendations were accepted. She said changes would provide better and fairer outcomes for everyone dealing with ACC.

23 August 2012

Damning reports show Government’s role in ACC dysfunction

A press release from the Green Party by Kevin Hague

Reports into ACC provide the most compelling evidence yet that the Government’s focus on saving a buck has caused ACC to lose sight of its role in helping injured and vulnerable New Zealanders, the Green Party said today.
Following requests from the Green Party, reviews into the Bronwyn Pullar Privacy breach and ACC board governance were conducted by the Privacy Commissioner and the Auditor General. Reports on both were released today.
“They reveal a corporation in desperate need of a culture change which the Privacy Commissioner stated must ‘start at the very top’,” Green Party ACC spokesperson Kevin Hague said.
“The reports cite the previous ACC minister’s focus on denying claimants every dollar he could as driving the culture at the corporation.
“And they show that ACC was prepared to sustain human casualties in its drive to achieve the Government’s goal.
“The current minister must now lead the top level change that’s been called for.
“The reports reveal a corporation bumbling along with archaic ideas about communication and responsibility which meant it failed both to treat claimants with decency, and to recognise enormous risks to the organisation even when they hit it in the face,” Mr Hague said.
The Auditor General expresses concern that serous ‘accusations of systemic illegality and fraud were not taken seriously by the corporation’.
And the Privacy Commissioner highlighted ‘an almost cavalier attitude towards its clients and to the protection of their private information’.
“These are two of the most damning reports on a Government entity I’ve ever read.
“It is clear that if board chairman John Judge had not already resigned, he would have been sacked today,” Mr Hague said.
The reports highlight three key issues:

As a result of Nick Smith's direction to prioritise ACC's bottom line, the organisation had inadequate focus on the needs of its clients;

The culture policies and systems of the organisation are a chaotic shambles that are not fit for purpose;

Restoring public trust and confidence is an essential goal and will require very major change starting from the top.

“Given the seriousness of the findings, the Minster must now request that the Auditor General bring forward her review into claims management at ACC. Most of the serious claims Ms Pullar made appear not to have been considered by the board.
“What’s now needed is for visionary leadership to turn this organisation around and focus on the original principals on which it was founded.
“The Minister must ensure that future appointments to the board are up to this task,” Mr Hague said.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1208/S00337/damning-reports-show-governments-role-in-acc-dysfunction.htm

Damning report expected on ACC

An article from the Dominion Post by Phil Kitchin

An independent investigation into ACC, prompted by revelations of a mass privacy breach, is expected to condemn the corporation's culture and processes.
A report due out today is expected to bolster widespread criticism of ACC's repeated breaches of thousands of its clients' privacy since the mass breach was exposed by The Dominion Post. It is also expected to criticise ACC's leadership, privacy systems and the corporation's technology for dealing with highly sensitive information.
Fallout from the March privacy breach has included the resignations of Cabinet minister Nick Smith and ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart, and the departure from the corporation's board of chairman John Judge and directors John McCliskie and Rob Campbell.
The report is being made public on the same day that another by the Auditor-General's Office, on how ACC manages risk at board level, is tabled in Parliament.
Both investigations arose after an ACC client - later identified as Bronwyn Pullar - revealed she had been sent private details of 6500 fellow clients. The information contained names and details of hundreds of people from ACC's sensitive claims unit, including rape and incest victims.
In the ensuing fallout, The Dominion Post revealed that ACC grossly misrepresented what happened at a crucial December meeting between Ms Pullar, her supporter Michelle Boag, and two senior ACC managers.
In a report to ACC Minister Judith Collins, the corporation said Ms Pullar threatened at the meeting to go to the media and to withhold details of the mass breach unless she was given a two-year guaranteed benefit. The corporation laid a blackmail complaint with police.
But a tape recording of the meeting, made by Ms Pullar and provided to ACC, made a mockery of the blackmail allegations. It showed no such threats or demands were made, and that Ms Pullar was already on weekly ACC compensation. After police were provided with a copy of the recording, they dismissed the complaint, saying no offence had been disclosed.
Today's reports are not expected to end the scandal, as Ms Collins has taken defamation action against Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little for suggesting her office was involved in leaking an email identifying Ms Pullar as the whistleblower.
The privacy report has been compiled by former Australian federal privacy commissioner Malcolm Crompton and accountancy firm KPMG. Ms Collins has seen the draft and has said she agrees with it. Ms Pullar and Ms Boag would not comment because they said they did not yet know what was in the final report.

18 July 2012

Abuse survivors struggling to access ACC

An article from Stuff by Paloma Migone, Stacey Kirk and Danya Levy

Therapists are having to "pick up the pieces" for the adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse because they are not getting the help they need from ACC, a leading psychotherapist says.
New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists spokesman Kyle MacDonald said progress made by ACC since changes to the way they handle sensitive claims were brought in has been too slow in coming.
"It’s fair to say there have improvements but it’s nowhere near enough. They’ve had 18 months to put these systems in place now."
Dr Barbara Disley yesterday released the second monitoring report of ACC’s progress on the development and implementation of 14 recommendations given by a 2010 Sensitive Claims Clinical Pathway review. She said there were concerns within the sector over the processes around independent assessment for cover.
"While there have been improvements, including the ability of the support counsellor to attend these assessments with the client, the narrow range of tools applied to determining mental injury and the limited number of professional groups who can administer these tools leads to bottle necks and delays in cover determination," she said.
"ACC needs to urgently review the assessment processes within the adult claims coverage context and broaden the range of tools and professional groups capable of undertaking these assessments."
Dr Disley said it was particularly important for adult survivors of child sexual abuse as the needs of the group were often complex and required specialist knowledge.
"A specific focus on the needs of this group needs to be now initiated," she said.
The number of clients that moved through the cover assessment process was low, falling dramatically from 5919 in 2007 to 235 last year.
Dr MacDonald said that was a "horrible number".
“This is clear evidence that the ACC’s policies are still failing New Zealanders and survivors of sexual abuse. And it’s worth remembering this report pre-dates the privacy breach of over 6000 ACC claimants, and subsequent events.”
Dr MacDonald, who sits on the Sensitive Claims Advisory Group, which ACC regularly meets, said the low number of successful claims was a direct result of the changes.
"This report demonstrates how victims of sexual abuse and assault are still struggling to access the support they are entitled to as a direct result of the National Government-led cost cutting drive in 2009. The fallout of this ill-informed policy is still being felt."
Among the changes that resulted four months later was a rule that new claimants and people waiting for a decision on whether they qualified for treatment could get 16 hours "initial support". These 16 free sessions have to be undertaken by an independent, but ACC appointed, assessor.
"The idea of going to talk to a complete stranger is sometimes one of the worst thoughts imaginable for our clients, and they have to go in there and open up to someone they barely know about some of the most traumatic experiences from their past," Dr MacDonald said.
He said clients were simply choosing not to go through with it.
"I think it was probably something that many psychotherapists and clinicians were expecting when the changes came into play. We’re essentially trying to pick up the pieces from an idea that was theirs in the first place."
The report said ACC urgently needed to review its assessment process for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse with mental injury. In the report, Dr Disley also said Maori must be given priority as progress in that area had been slower than expected.
However, the process for children and adolescents in relation to accessing immediate support and moving through the cover process had improved. Overall, Dr Disley found ACC had made "excellent progress" implementing one recommendation and good progress on another six.
"There’s still work to be done in some areas," she said.
Greens ACC spokesman Kevin Hague said the Government and ACC had created a culture of "severe disentitlement" when it came to sensitive claims. ACC was purposely making it harder for clients to get their claims accepted following evidence released by the Greens showing ACC staff were paid bonuses for cutting claimants from the ACC books, he said.
ACC Minister Judith Collins said there had been progress on all but one recommendation but there was still more work for ACC to do.
"Obviously not everything that has been recommended has been completed to the level it should have been. I expect most of them will be completed in the next 18 months."
ACC was undertaking major changes in the area of sensitive claims, 范she said.
"Ultimately they have to make sure they make those changes sustainably and right through the organisation."
The 2010 review, requested by then ACC Minister Nick Smith, made 14 recommendations, including that a process be established to independently monitor the development and implement the review’s suggestions.

© 2012 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7297268/Abuse-survivors-struggling-to-access-ACC

17 July 2012

ACC sex abuse processes 'need review'

An article from Stuff by Paloma Migone

ACC needs to urgently review its assessment process for adults who were abused as children and left with mental health problems, an independent report says.
Dr Barbara Disley today released the second monitoring report of ACC's progress on the development and implementation of 14 recommendations given by a 2010 Sensitive Claims Clinical Pathway review. In the report, she said there were concerns within the sector over the processes around independent assessment for cover.
"While there have been improvements including the ability of the support counsellor to attend these assessments with the client, the narrow range of tools applied to determining mental injury and the limited number of professional groups who can administer these tools leads to bottle necks and delays in cover determination," she said.
"ACC needs to urgently review the assessment processes within the adult claims coverage context and broaden the range of tools and professional groups capable of undertaking these assessments."
Disley said it was particularly important for adult survivors of child sexual abuse as the needs of the group were often complex and required specialist knowledge.
"A specific focus on the needs of this group needs to be now initiated," she said.
The number of clients that moved through the cover assessment process was low, falling dramatically since 2007 to 2011 from 5919 to 235 respectively. It could be that the recently-implemented 16 support sessions available were sufficient for some clients, but ACC needed to ensure that the process of cover determination itself was not to blame.
Disley also said Maori must be given priority as progress in that area has been slower than expected. The process for children and adolescents in relation to accessing immediate support and moving through the cover process had improved however.
Overall, Disley found ACC had made "excellent progress" implementing one recommendation and good progress on another six.
"In the 18 months since the initial, independent review, ACC has made significant changes to the way it deals with sensitive claims, and these changes have seen considerable progress achieved in many years."
However, she said: "There's still work to be done in some areas."
The 2010 review, requested by then ACC Minister Nick Smith, made 14 recommendations, including that a process be established to independently monitor the development and implementation of the review's suggestions.

14 June 2012

Labour: Stop filthy fleecing ACC claimants

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

The political firestorm over ACC intensified yesterday with the resignation of chief executive Ralph Stewart triggering an urgent parliamentary debate over the changes needed at the state-owned accident insurer.
Mr Stewart, the former head of investment company AXA NZ, became chief executive of ACC only in September but left yesterday morning after just nine months in the job.
His departure comes hard on the heels of ACC chairman John Judge's resignation on Tuesday and confirmation that directors Rob Campbell and John McCliskie have been told they will not be reappointed.
"I am deeply frustrated that the benefits of the scheme and the great work we do has been overshadowed by recent events," Mr Stewart said.
Those events included the police decision last week not to lay charges against Bronwyn Pullar and TV3's 60 Minutes on Sunday which implied it was ACC managers who first suggested a deal with her for the return of leaked data about thousands of clients.
ACC Minister Judith Collins said Mr Stewart told her on Tuesday "he felt it was time for him to move on".
She said she felt sorry for Mr Stewart. "He's had a tough time."
Greens ACC spokesman Kevin Hague said Mr Stewart's resignation cleared the way for Mrs Collins to lead the process for refreshing ACC by steering it away from what he and others claim has been a focus on denying claims to save money and bringing it back to the principles on which it was founded.
"We need to reverse this culture of disentitlement that's taken hold since 2009 and with those key players - [former ACC minister] Nick Smith, John Judge and Ralph Stewart - gone we've got the environment to do that."
Mr Hague said there were serious questions Mrs Collins needed to answer about her role in the Bronwyn Pullar affair.
But Labour's ACC spokesman, Andrew Little, said Mrs Collins should be the next to go as Mr Stewart's resignation confirmed the depth of the crisis.
"It is an absolute disgrace, and it is entirely the responsibility of that Government", he told the House, and accused Mrs Collins and Dr Smith as her predecessor of driving ACC "into the ground".
Mr Little said ACC now needed a minister who was focused on the needs of ACC claimants rather than on the Government's "tawdry, nasty, filthy little strategy of trying to fleece people and get people to lose their entitlements".
Mrs Collins said it was time for a culture change at ACC but her concerns were about treatment of claimants and their privacy.
"I want to have a situation where ACC has a culture whereby its staff look at their claimants and they ask themselves, 'How would I like to be treated? How would I like my information to be treated?', or, even more so, 'How would I like my mother's information to be treated?"'
Meanwhile, former ACC minister Nick Smith has broken his silence on ACC whistle-blower Bronwyn Pullar.
Dr Smith was forced to resign from Cabinet earlier this year after it was revealed he offered Ms Pullar his support in her long-running fight with the corporation.
Dr Smith told Newstalk ZB opposition and media views on Ms Pullar had been contradictory - while two months ago people were saying she was a villain, she was now being portrayed as a hero.
"And either of those things are true. Bronwyn is a sad case of a very capable person who's had an accident and actually well illustrates the dilemma for many New Zealanders involved in ACC as to what is the appropriate time of rehabilitation," he said.

19 April 2012

Opening up of ACC will not be rushed - Collins

A news report from Radio New Zealand

ACC Minister Judith Collins says progress on opening up ACC to the private sector is still being made.
In a speech on Thursday morning, Ms Collins also said the corporation's biggest current challenge is client privacy.
The previous ACC minister, Nick Smith, had already embarked upon the process of allowing private insurance companies to compete with ACC for workplace cover. He resigned last month after it was revealed he had written a reference for an ACC claimant while he was the minister.
Ms Collins, who took over the portfolio, told the Employers and Manufacturers' Association on Thursday that progress is being made, but the process will not be rushed.
She also talked about the recent controversies over the release of client information, saying they've understandably undermined public confidence in ACC. She said she's still not satisfied the corporation's privacy provisions are good enough, and the board is working to address that.
Meanwhile, Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little are sending Ms Collins a letter of response to her threat to proceed with defamation action. In separate letters they say they will not be offering an apology, nor will they be covering her legal costs.

Collins 'not satisfied' with ACC

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Claire Trevett

ACC minister Judith Collins has told an employers group that ACC needs to rebuild public trust and had fallen short in protecting privacy after a realm of controversies and complaints about it.
Ms Collins spoke to the Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association this morning and referred to the recent controversy around it, saying privacy and information security was the biggest issue facing ACC at the moment. Her comments follow revelations ACC inadvertently emailed a database of its claimants to Bronwyn Pullar, a National Party supporter who has been in a stoush with ACC over her entitlement following a head injury in 2002. Ms Collins said it was essential that New Zealanders could trust ACC.
"Understandably these matters have undermined people's confidence in ACC and the service it provides. At this stage I am not yet satisfied ACC's privacy provisions and protocols are appropriate or are being complied with to the level they should be."
Ms Collins also implied ACC had gone too far in deciding cases were entitled to compensation, saying while it should not be seen as a "soft touch" it should follow a fair process.
"We would like to see a renewed focus in ACC towards a rebalance of the broader responsibilities it has to all New Zealanders. It must ensure entitlements are delivered transparently and fairly to those who need them."
She said she expected ACC to implement any recommendations the Privacy Commissioner might make after an investigation, but there were also many processes that could be strengthened immediately.
Ms Collins is threatening to sue Labour MPs Andrew Little, Trevor Mallard and Radio NZ for defamation over comments they made relating to a leak of an email, and has said she will resign if that leak came from her or her office. She has given them until today to apologise and retract their comments. Both have said they do not intend to apologise.
In her speech, Ms Collins gave few hints about whether she would back away from plans to introduce competition into the work account, which covers employers, as National had campaigned on. She told the EMA that there would be changes which would give employers more choices, but they were still being worked on.
"Improvements to the scheme will offer employers choice only where it makes good sense to."
In February, Ms Collins said speculation she would ditch the proposal which National had campaigned on in 2011 were 'extremely speculative" but she did believe there were better options than those outlined by Dr Smith.
Sources had previously told the Herald there were concerns that introducing competition at this point would punish small and medium businesses in levy increases and open ACC to too much risk as private companies cherry picked low-risk employers as their clients.
Ms Collins did give a clear indication that more employers would soon be able to sign up to the Accredited Employer Scheme which is currently restricted to large companies. That scheme allows those companies to manage their own workplace accident cover, including managing injuries and administering compensation payments. She said ACC were evaluating that scheme's success and looking to offer it more widely.

05 April 2012

Question to the Prime Minister

1. GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his answers to questions in the House this year?

Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes. The Prime Minister has answered 36 primary questions covering a large range of topics, and if the member wants specific answers, then he will have to ask a more specific primary question.
Grant Robertson: Does he still stand by his answers that Ministers involved in the ACC saga showed only a lapse of judgment and “not a terribly significant one”, given that there are now five separate inquiries under way into the ACC saga, and why does he just simply not appoint a judge or a QC to do a proper inquiry?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well, of course, the member has taken the partial view of what the Prime Minister said. The quote the member used was in respect of the first letter, I think, that the Minister for ACC at the time had written. Of course, in that case further evidence came to light and the Minister decided to stand down. We also need to bear in mind that the focus of a number of those inquiries is actually the privacy processes of ACC, which, of course, are of great interest to all those who are claimants, and might be claimants in the future. We believe that those matters are being adequately inquired into.
Grant Robertson: Does he still stand by his answers around the appropriateness of chairing the committee and appointing his electorate chair, Stephen McElrea, to the board of New Zealand On Air, given Mr McElrea’s attempt to intervene in the broadcast of a programme?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: In answer to the question about appropriateness, I did chuckle when I saw Mike Williams on TV going on about getting rid of cronyism, when he was appointed by the last Prime Minister to, I think, five large public boards, in which he interfered in every decision any of those entities made.
Grant Robertson: How can he express confidence in all of his Ministers when his Ministers have stuffed up the reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stuffed up the Crafar farm decision, and when his finance Minister can give only a guess as to the real value of the assets that are his only economic plan?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: All I can say is that the Prime Minister has more confidence in his Ministers than the deputy leader of the Labour Party has in his leader.
Grant Robertson: In reference to the Prime Minister’s answers in question time on 7 March on the provision of unconditional love by his pet, and in light of what his own pollster has described as a “quartus horribilis” for his Government, will he now reconsider his apparent decision to appoint his cat Moonbeam as the Government’s strategist?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: No. I do not believe the Prime Minister would do that. The Prime Minister has great affection for Moonbeam, and being the Government strategist is somewhat challenging, and Moonbeam might not be up to it. [Interruption] But he is available for the Labour Party.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Grant Robertson: Does he still stand by his answer that he has confidence that he has confidence in all his Ministers, given that the Hon John Banks failed to declare a $15,000 donation from Skycity in his electoral return for the Auckland mayoralty?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Prime Minister is not aware of those issues, and the inquiry should be directed to the relevant Minister. The Prime Minister would expect that all Ministers comply with the requirements of the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament and the Cabinet Manual.
Grant Robertson: Would he still have confidence in the Hon John Banks as a Minister if he was aware that Skycity publicly stated that it had given $15,000 to both main mayoral candidates in Auckland, and that it has a policy of asking those who get donations to declare them, and that that donation to Mr Banks does not appear in his return for the Auckland mayoralty expenses?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Prime Minister’s concern is that members comply with the Register of Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament and with the requirements of the Cabinet Manual, and any inquiries related to that should be directed to the relevant Minister.
Grant Robertson: Would the Prime Minister continue to have confidence in a Minister who has not declared a $15,000 donation from Skycity when running for the Auckland mayoralty, given that the penalty for failure to properly declare a donation, under the Local Electoral Act, is up to 2 years in prison—enough to force a resignation from Parliament?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: I can only repeat the answer I gave before, and in that respect the Prime Minister is more demanding than the previous Prime Minister, who tolerated a Minister who did not declare a $100,000 donation that was arranged by the Labour Party from one of the Labour Party’s principal donors.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does the Prime Minister recall the Hon Nick Smith telling this House, at the same time, that he made a declaration of his legal fund—identical to mine—to Dame Margaret Bazley, only to have her tell this House that he lied; that he made no such declaration? Does he recall that?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: I am not familiar with the details of that. What I am pointing out is that the Prime Minister has a standard he expects Ministers to reach, and that standard is higher than what was applied by the previous Labour Government to its Ministers.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: If the Prime Minister is so keen on certain standards being upheld, why is he not concerned as to what Nick Smith did when, for an egregious reason being sued for defamation, he had such a fund to his pecuniary advantage whereas the fund we had was for an electoral democratic purpose?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well, the purpose of the significant donation to New Zealand First by Labour’s principal donor was, I think, discussed at the time. Nick Smith was involved in a defamation action. The matters around his legal fees were all canvassed, in detail, at the time.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1204/S00085.htm

01 April 2012

ACC claimants bugged emails

An article from the Herald on Sunday by Joanne Carroll and David Fisher

Online security has been tightened at ACC after some claimants bugged emails to see what case managers were doing.
Bronwyn Pullar, the woman at the centre of the ACC security scandal, has revealed she used email tracking software to get updates of activity with her file - a detail already revealed by Michelle Boag to ACC minister Judith Collins.
It is the latest twist in a scandal which has engulfed the National Party, pitted former president Boag against her political friends, cost former ACC minister Nick Smith his Cabinet job and embroiled Prime Minister John Key.
An investigation by the Privacy Commissioner is under way into the accidental sending of client information to Pullar. Police are also investigating ACC's claim Pullar tried to trade the information for a benefit. Pullar identified a staff member who had opened her email before it became public, exposing the bug she had planted in her email, feeding information back to her.
The Herald on Sunday understands a review by ACC identified other claimants were using similar tactics to monitor their claims. A spokeswoman said: "ACC tightened its IT security following revelations that email tracking software was being used to track emails sent to the organisation without the knowledge of the recipients."
The existence of the bug in the email had already been revealed by Boag to Collins. In the email leaked to the Herald on Sunday which exposed Pullar's identity, Boag wrote: "You should also be aware that Bronwyn has an email tracking device that allows her to know when her emails are opened."
Meanwhile, a man who received claimants' confidential information intended for ACC for three years says the corporation stopped the stream of information only after he billed them for fax machine toner and paper.
Jon Styles, of Style Group, an acoustic consulting company based in Parnell, said he started getting faxes from different ACC suppliers to his office about three years ago.
"The faxes were mainly from treatment providers and comprised claims for expenses and cited the names and contact details of the individuals concerned and also details of their treatment," he said.
He said he did not know why he was receiving the faxes and tried sending them back and alerting ACC.
"Sometimes the faxes could involve up to 40 pages of supporting documents for the claims which would clog up our fax line for ages and use up our toner and paper. Eventually I got so fed up, I decided to invoice ACC for the lost time, paper and toner - an amount of something like $350 plus GST. Only this action got ACC to listen," he said. "After much debate and issuing a credit for the invoice, I stopped receiving faxes." He shredded all the faxes he received.
ACC spokeswoman Stephanie Melville said ACC was sorry it took so long to stop the faxes.
ACC beneficiaries Mike Rogerson and Garth Paul have also reported being sent other claimants' files.

Too much doesn't add up in this ACC security story

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Deborah Coddington

Despite the Prime Minister's plea, everyone has not "moved on" from the ACC security breach debacle.
It's hugely significant that John Key has twice asked his ACC Minister if she leaked the email from Michelle Boag. His statement on Wednesday was disingenuous: "I've got no reason at all to question her." Obviously he'd already questioned her, and gone on the record about it.
Debate now swirls around who did leak this private email that Boag, former National Party president, sent to Judith Collins. Collins sent it to ACC chairman John Judge and chief executive Ralph Stewart. She insists neither she, nor anyone in her office, leaked it.
Before the Boag communication was published in this newspaper, we did not know the person who received in error from ACC a spreadsheet with more than 6000 names was Bronwyn Pullar, National Party stalwart, and that she'd badgered former ACC Minister Nick Smith, and other National MPs, for months seeking favours in her fight with ACC to get a benefit.
So when her name became public, it was only a matter of time before we knew about the two letters Smith wrote on ministerial letterhead.
But though Smith went quickly, the controversy won't die. Now there is to be an inquiry. There are so many things wrong with this picture, and in so many ways.
First: why is the taxpayer-funded ACC even expected to pay compensation to someone who, we now know, has already received a million-dollar payout from a private insurance company for her bicycle accident, the same accident for which she's seeking an ongoing benefit from ACC? Can you imagine the scandal that would have erupted if media discovered a National Party insider, with a little help from her MP mates, had secured an ACC benefit because she fell off her bike the day after a night on the town with more of her right-wing mates, lived in a $700,000 apartment, and was already supported by the income from a million-dollar trust, courtesy of another insurance payout? All from the same accident?
Another puzzle: Boag has stated that Collins told her if she (Boag) wrote to her, she would have to pass the communication directly on to ACC. Boag is a very smart operator and I just can't understand her charging ahead and sending such a self-incriminating email to Collins if she knew it was going to be sent on to the chairman, and the chief executive, of ACC. Unless Collins was being set up.
But there were brain fades all around in this sorry saga. Pullar certainly wasn't thinking straight. She's not a whistleblower, as some insist on calling her. A whistleblower would not have held on to other people's private information from August to December, then allegedly threatened ACC senior managers with it. A whistleblower would have gone straight to the Privacy Commissioner.
But this is all about Pullar. When her name became public and her "friend" Smith had to resign, instead of shutting up and going to ground, she kept on digging, blathering away in public. She couldn't even apologise to Smith in private, but hogged the spotlight, then bagged ACC again.
And yes, it was a stupid thing Smith did, but it speaks volumes about the type of representative he's always been. Every time he's been in hot water, it's because he's taken his advocacy for constituents a little too far. He's forgotten to think about himself and the consequences for his own career, and that has been his downfall. This time he thought it was for a friend, but a friend wouldn't have asked him to intervene for her in the first place.

31 March 2012

Lest we forget the ACC claimants

A post from g.blog

There is a parallel story to the ACC scandal that has already cost Nick Smith his Ministerial career, and may well cost other Ministers or senior public servants theirs. It is a story that no-one apart from Kevin Hague appears to be telling.
That is the story of how ACC claimants are being treated (or mistreated) by ACC.

Click here to read the rest of this post.

http://greenvoices.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/lest-we-forget-the-acc-claimants/

ACC scandal special

A press release from iPredict

Key Points:
• Collins set to survive ACC scandal but defamation actions expected to fail
• “Beehive staffer” most likely culprit for Boag email leak
• Police expected to investigate while new stock launched on probability of Prime Minister announcing an inquiry
• Nick Smith looks safe from further sanction and has 1/3 chance of being re-appointed a minister by year’s end
• National appears unaffected by scandal with new stocks on next TVNZ poll launched overnight
• Labour still favoured to win next New Zealand election

Click here to read more.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1203/S00407/ipredict-newsletter-acc-scandal-special.htm

Key vetted files for Pullar ties

An article from the Dominion Post by Tracy Watkins and Danya Levy

Prime Minister John Key has revealed he and his staff took the extraordinary step of combing through his parliamentary and electorate office files for evidence of any official contact with ACC claimant Bronwyn Pullar as her case drags National into a widening ACC scandal.
Mr Key said the search confirmed there had been no contact other than at social functions where Ms Pullar had raised her beef with ACC with him.
A letter from Ms Pullar's private insurance company Sovereign detailing a $14 million claim was leaked on Thursday. It showed Mr Key's name on a list of high-profile people who were claimed to be Ms Pullar's supporters.
Ms Pullar yesterday said Mr Key had not helped her with her claim and she had only one conversation with him about her fight for compensation.
"It was at a National Party Christmas function in Auckland when he was the MP for Helensville. I was very distressed at the time and I took the opportunity to vent my frustrations. He listened politely, but I did not ask him to do anything and he did not offer to assist."
Ms Pullar said she had been asked by "one of her advisers" to write a list of people who knew about her dispute with Sovereign. The letter referred to her $14m claim but it is understood she settled with the insurer for about $1m.
Mr Key said it was nothing new for him to be a victim of name dropping, but he knew he had nothing to hide.
"I've never been part of any support group or advisory group. I don't have Bronwyn Pullar's mobile phone or any other phone number in my phone. I've never rung her. I've gone through all my electorate office and/or parliamentary office files. There has never been any correspondence received from her or sent to her," he told Close Up.
"If anyone believes I'm not telling the truth, well, bring out the information and good luck to you because you'll have to be imagining a situation I wasn't involved in."
National is being torn apart by a series of leaks which resulted in the downfall of former ACC Minister Nick Smith, who got involved in Ms Pullar's case without declaring a conflict of interest over their close friendship. Speculation over the source of one of the leaks this week saw ACC Minister Judith Collins threaten to sue Labour MPs Andrew Little and Trevor Mallard and Radio New Zealand. But after the two MPs failed to meet a 5pm Thursday deadline to apologise, Ms Collins yesterday refused to comment on her next step.
Fate drew three of the central figures in the saga – Ms Pullar, support person Michelle Boag and Mr Key – to Queenstown yesterday. Ms Boag was the author of the email to Ms Collins which which was leaked. Ms Collins has denied that she or her office leaked it.
But while Ms Boag and Ms Pullar apparently caught up, lunching together in Queenstown, Ms Boag and Mr Key never crossed paths, despite being at the same golf tournament.
Sovereign general manager of marketing David Drillien said yesterday he was "very confident" the letter, shown on television had not been leaked by his company.
"It looked to me like it was an original that was mailed out."
Sovereign had an electronic copy of the letter which was only accessible to a few people, he said.

30 March 2012

ACC row: Key denies backing $14m claim

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

Prime Minister John Key was last night dragged into the widening ACC scandal and forced to deny a report he was part of a group of senior National Party figures who backed Bronwyn Pullar's bid for a $14 million insurance payout.
Mr Key's denial came at the end of a day in which ACC Minister Judith Collins sued Opposition MPs over allegations she leaked an email relating to Ms Pullar, and Ms Pullar claimed she used "stealth" software to monitor ACC's handling of her claim.
It also emerged in Parliament that the Green Party recently received the sensitive information about 6700 ACC claimants that was sent to Ms Pullar, sparking the affair, but returned it to the corporation.
TVNZ current affairs programme Close Up last night said it had received a letter written by Sovereign Insurance to former National Party president Michelle Boag in 2007. The letter named 28 people, among them prominent National Party figures including John Key and former Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley, as supporters of Ms Pullar as she sought a $14 million payout from the company in relation to injuries she suffered in a 2002 cycling accident. The claim, Sovereign said in the letter, was "greatly in excess of her entitlement".
Ms Boag is a long-standing friend of Ms Pullar who supported her during her battle with ACC, including attending a December meeting with ACC which has sparked investigations by the police and the Privacy Commissioner.
In the letter, Sovereign noted, it had been given a list of members of Ms Pullar's "claimed support/advisory team". The list included Sir Selwyn Cushing, Mr Key, Dame Jenny and Dr Wayne Mapp.
Mr Key was at the time the Leader of the Opposition. He has said he met Ms Pullar when he first entered politics - which was shortly after her accident - but had not had any contact with her since he became National Party leader.
Last night, he issued a statement saying: "I have not been involved in any 'claims support' or 'advisory team' for Bronwyn Pullar.
"The claim in the letter that I was part of such a team in 2007, or indeed any other time, is wrong."
Dr Mapp, a former minister who was an MP at the time, last night told Close Up he had met Sovereign to discuss the matter
"I simply facilitated some meetings ... they ultimately led to a settlement."
The Herald understands that settlement was in excess of $1 million. Ms Pullar did not respond to the Herald yesterday.
The letter preceded those that Nick Smith wrote in support of Ms Pullar's ACC claim while he was ACC Minister and which led to his resignation from Cabinet last week.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman last night said the Sovereign letter "raises the question of whether John Key did declare his full involvement in this case".
"It also raises the question of whether, in the conduct of his private investigation into Nick Smith's conflict of interest, he too had a conflict of interest.
"These are questions that only an independent inquiry can legitimately answer."
Ms Collins, the current ACC Minister, yesterday initiated defamation action against Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little and also Radio NZ over allegations about the leaking of an email sent by Ms Boag to Ms Collins concerning Ms Pullar's claim. She demanded an apology from the pair, but Mr Mallard said Ms Collins' action was "an attempt to gag members of parliament, inside and outside of the House".
Meanwhile, it was reported that when Ms Pullar emailed Dr Smith's letter to ACC in support of her claim last year, she did so using software enabling her to track each time it was opened and who it was forwarded to without the knowledge of the email's recipients.
Internet security expert Peter Gutman, of Auckland University, said such "web bugs" were uncommon.
"Spammers use it on a massive scale, and beyond that it's used only by security geeks."

29 March 2012

Key letter means independent inquiry needed

A press release from the Green Party

The Green Party says it is now essential an independent inquiry is held into the Bronwyn Pullar affair following the release of correspondence that potentially implicates John Key in the saga. John Key is listed as a supporter of Bronwyn Pullar in a letter to Sovereign Insurance regarding her multi-million dollar private insurance claim in 2007, when he was the leader of the opposition.
“This raises the question of whether John Key did declare his full involvement in this case,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.
“It also raises the question of whether, in the conduct of his private investigation into Nick Smiths conflict of interest, he too had a conflict of interest.
“These are questions that only an independent inquiry can legitimately answer.
“In Parliament John Key ruled out an independent inquiry that could have revealed this potential conflict of interest.
“An independent inquiry would establish if the Prime Minister had a conflict of interest at the point that he investigated Nick Smith.
“If it is true that the Prime Minister has no knowledge of being named in the Sovereign letter, or that his support of Bronwyn Pullar was as he has previously described it, then he has nothing to fear from an independent inquiry.
“New Zealanders have the right to have confidence in the propriety and actions of their Government. Only an independent inquiry can assess that,” said Dr Norman.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1203/S00404/key-letter-means-independent-inquiry-needed.htm

Targets of ACC defamation action confirmed

An article from the New Zealand Herald by Adam Bennett

It has been confirmed that ACC Minister Judith Collins is planning legal action against Labour Party politicians Andrew Little and Trevor Mallard and Radio NZ for alleged defamation. It follows confirmation the Privacy Commission will investigate the email Ms Collins received from former National Party president Michelle Boag which helped end her colleague Nick Smith's ministerial career.
Ms Collins has announced she is taking legal action for allegedly defamatory comments made outside the House by the two Labour Party politicians, and also the radio station. While she initially would not name who the MPs or the media outlet were, she confirmed their identities this afternoon.
Labour deputy leader Grant Robertson says the MPs involved in Ms Collins legal bid are Mallard and Little, and they had received papers. Mr Roberson said he did not want to comment on the legal action, "other than to say we are doing our job holding the Government to account".
"There are serious questions to be answered here about the trust and confidence from the Government about how information about a private individual made its way into the public arena."
"Untrue and defamatory statements have been made about me and my conduct in relation to the handling of information I received concerning an ACC claimant," Ms Collins said in a statement this morning.
"I value my reputation and take very seriously any accusations that I have acted improperly. This is not a course of action I take lightly.
"I have made myself extremely clear from the outset, that neither I, nor my office, has played any part in the release of the claimant's name to the media."
Ms Collins denied to Radio Live the move was a ploy to close down debate on the issue.
Confirmation that Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff will investigate the email's trail from Ms Boag to an eventual report in the Herald on Sunday came as Labour claimed Ms Collins, National Party operative Simon Lusk and right-wing blogger Cameron Slater all played a part in the leak. In the email, Ms Boag set out her account of a December meeting she attended between ACC claimant and former National Party insider Bronwyn Pullar and senior ACC managers.
All recipients of the email, including Ms Collins, ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and ACC chairman John Judge have denied leaking the email to the Herald on Sunday.
The Herald on Sunday's report named Ms Pullar as the woman at the centre of a major privacy breach at ACC and identified Ms Boag as her support person at the December meeting. At that meeting ACC claims Ms Pullar attempted to strike a deal to exchange the private information of thousands of other ACC claimants in return for a guaranteed benefit. It subsequently emerged that Dr Smith, who was ACC Minister, wrote two letters supporting his old friend Ms Pullar's pursuit of her ACC claim, errors for which he resigned last week.
Ms Collins said the investigation, which she was told of early yesterday after a discussion with Ms Shroff on Tuesday night, was a "very good idea". The commission's work "may involve computer forensic investigation", she said. "Frankly I welcome that."
Labour has been pressing for the Auditor-General to investigate Ms Pullar's use of her political connections to advance her ACC case and the role of ACC's board in setting up the December meeting.
In Parliament yesterday, Labour's Trevor Mallard questioned Ms Collins on her handling of Ms Boag's email, asking whether she or any of her staff discussed its contents with Mr Lusk. Ms Collins said she had not, but Labour's deputy leader, Grant Robertson, pressed the attack later in a general debate.
"We know there are many National Party figures involved in this, with the mention of Simon Lusk's name. So we want to know about Simon Lusk's phone calls to Judith Collins' office."
Mr Robertson called on Ms Collins to ensure all emails in and out of her office, text messages and phone calls were made available to the Privacy Commissioner. Mr Lusk was the manager of the Vote for Change campaign against MMP last year and among other roles has served as Napier MP Chris Tremain's campaign manager, in 2008.

WHO SAW EMAIL
* Michelle Boag - the sender of the email and Bronwyn Pullar's friend and supporter.
* ACC Minister Judith Collins - the recipient of the email who then forwarded it to:
* ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and his secretary, and:
* ACC chairman John Judge.