Page: 21904
Second Reading
The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA (Minister for Finance, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability Services, and Vice-President of the Executive Council) [3.58 p.m.]: I move:
That these bills be now read a second time.
It is with great pleasure and some pride that I introduce the Motor Accidents (Lifetime Care and Support) Bill and the Motor Accidents Compensation Amendment Bill. These cognate bills provide the legislative framework for implementing the Government's significant improvements in the assistance available to people injured in motor vehicle accidents. The Motor Accidents (Lifetime Care and Support) Bill establishes a scheme to provide lifetime care and support for persons who suffer catastrophic injuries such as spinal damage or brain trauma in motor vehicle accidents. This will give effect to the Government's plan, announced last year, for a major overhaul in the care of people catastrophically injured in motor vehicle accidents.
The Motor Accidents Compensation Amendment Bill introduces enhancements to the existing CTP motor accidents injury scheme. The first is by introducing a new special children's benefit providing a no-fault benefit for those New South Wales resident children injured in motor accidents who currently are not covered by the CTP scheme. Secondly, the bill also extends the scope of the CTP scheme to provide compensation entitlements for injury or death resulting from a "'blameless" or "inevitable" accident, which is a motor vehicle accident where no-one is considered to have been at fault. An example of this is where a person is injured because a driver experiences an unforeseen illness or medical condition which results in a loss of control over the vehicle. Currently, under the common law, if a court finds that no-one was at fault in an accident, the CTP compensation entitlements are not available to those injured in the accident.
This Government has a proven record in successfully planning and implementing insurance scheme reforms. The New South Wales Government made major reforms to the motor accidents scheme in 1999 to achieve three key objectives: to provide motorists with cheaper green slips, to improve access to early treatment and rehabilitation expenses for people injured in a motor vehicle accidents, and to increase the proportion of the premium dollar going to injured people, particularly those with serious injuries, by reducing scheme administration costs.
Since the 1999 reforms green slip prices have continued to decrease. Before the reforms took effect the average green slip price for a family passenger vehicle in the Sydney metropolitan area was $441. By June 2004 the average price for a green slip for that vehicle was $343 plus GST, dropping even further to $322 plus GST by December 2005. This is a substantial reduction on the pre-reform price of $441, and amounts to an actual dollar savings of over $100 per policy for motorists in New South Wales. The reforms also introduced the accidents notification form [ANF] to provide injured people with fast access to early treatment. Some 36 per cent of claimants have used this simplified procedure to notify insurers of their claim and to obtain more immediate compensation.
The introduction of the ANF and the 10-day deadline requirement for insurers to accept provisional liability has shortened the time that it takes for an injured person to seek compensation payments. Another key objective of the 1999 reforms was to ensure that payments for seriously injured people were not affected. In the reform scheme the average payment to the most seriously injured has increased by 19 per cent.
Pursuant to sessional orders business interrupted.