Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Warren Forster: ACC lawyer and researcher on ACC's plan to improve costs and reduce its deficit

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Warren Forster: ACC lawyer and researcher on ACC's plan to improve costs and reduce its deficit · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the ACC, it's got a twenty six billion dollar
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: deficit by twenty thirty, that's now now released a plan
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  Speaker 1: about how they got to cope with all of this.
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  Speaker 1: The plan focuses on quicker rehabilitation for claimants and getting
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  Speaker 1: the agency back to basics. And under the new plan,
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  Speaker 1: the agency projects it will bring in a two billion
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  Speaker 1: dollar surplus by twenty thirty instead of a twenty six
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  Speaker 1: billion dollar deficit. That will be a remarkable turnaround. So
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  Speaker 1: Warren Forster is an ACC lawyer and researcher, enjoys you
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  Speaker 1: now how the Warren.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: The fact that the plan came out yesterday came as
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a surprise. You did it not?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, We've been waiting for this to be released for
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  Speaker 2: probably five months and it just got thrown yesterday afternoon,
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  Speaker 2: So it's quite a surprise. And the other thing that's
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  Speaker 2: missing is that ACC was given the draft plan about
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  Speaker 2: eight months ago and the opportunity to respond to it,
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  Speaker 2: and they did, and the draft plan and ACC's response
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  Speaker 2: hasn't been released. For what we generally see with these
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  Speaker 2: things is that they get watered down in the final process.
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  Speaker 2: So it'll be interesting to see if they actually are
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  Speaker 2: going to release that.
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  Speaker 1: Why are they doing this? So they just try to
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  Speaker 1: hide everything they don't want scrutiny.
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  Speaker 2: That's effectively what the problem is is that you had
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  Speaker 2: this external review done, the only people they talk to
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  Speaker 2: is ACC and then halfway through their realized, well we
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  Speaker 2: better talk to Treasury as well. But they didn't actually
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  Speaker 2: talk to anyone on the ground. They didn't pork to
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  Speaker 2: people from are external to a SEC who actually understand
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  Speaker 2: the situation in detail. So yeah, that's really what they're
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  Speaker 2: trying to do. They're trying to avoid scrutiny and they're
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  Speaker 2: trying to control the narrative, which they've effectively done by
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  Speaker 2: releasing the report along with their plan.
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  Speaker 1: What did you think of the plan?
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  Speaker 2: Look, to be honest, the whole reportant plan just completely
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  Speaker 2: misses what the Act is actually about. And what the
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  Speaker 2: Act says is that anyone who's going to be off
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  Speaker 2: word for more than three months need to have an
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  Speaker 2: individual rehabilitation plan that gets the employer, the treatment provided
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  Speaker 2: the person, and a SEC together to make a plan
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  Speaker 2: for that person. And what's been happening is because ACC
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  Speaker 2: has got this big book to do visiting digital system,
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  Speaker 2: they've completely ignored that. So people been exited from ACC
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  Speaker 2: in many parts of New Zealand. About four percent of
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  Speaker 2: them have a plan that through the south you go,
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  Speaker 2: the higher the rates and more people have a plan.
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  Speaker 2: But the idea that they're not doing what the Act requires,
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  Speaker 2: and then they're reinventing the wheel, which is effectively what
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  Speaker 2: they're doing. They're building a square wheel where they've got
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  Speaker 2: one in the legislation. They just forgot it exists. And no,
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  Speaker 2: we're in the plan that ACC is released, No we're
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  Speaker 2: in the report. Do they actually say what's happened here
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  Speaker 2: is ACC has actually failed to fulfill its statutory obligations.
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  Speaker 2: That's created this big blowout that stopped people getting back
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  Speaker 2: to work. And the responsibility is of the ACC. And
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  Speaker 2: what we're actually going to do now is make them
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  Speaker 2: do what it says on the box of ACC, which
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  Speaker 2: is to provide individualized rehabilitation. What they've done is effectively said, oh,
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  Speaker 2: there's a whole lot of problems here. Don't really know
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  Speaker 2: what they are. We think that the heirs are symptoms.
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  Speaker 2: They described the symptoms of the problem and then said
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  Speaker 2: it's going to cost us lots of money. We're going
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  Speaker 2: to have to sort of crack down on ACC. So
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  Speaker 2: that's the narrative of that creating that. To be honest,
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  Speaker 2: it's pretty surprising that we're at a critical junction now
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  Speaker 2: for ACC. We don't need to swing backwards and forwards again.
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  Speaker 2: We need to make a sustainable plan.
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  Speaker 1: Whyn I, thank you so much for your time. That's
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  Speaker 1: Warren Forster. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:27
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