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Speaker 1: ACC's announced to seven point two billion dollar deficit for

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Speaker 1: the year to journe This just after a year after

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Speaker 1: reporting a surplus of nine hundred and eleven million, and

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Speaker 1: it's got everyone on the text machine saying what how

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Speaker 1: does that happen? It comes as the ACC is looking

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Speaker 1: to raise levies for twenty twenty five to twenty twenty eight.

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Speaker 1: This is to help pay for increasing costs. Matt Doucy

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Speaker 1: is the ACC minister. He's with me this morning. Minister Mordenna,

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Speaker 1: Good morning Morlene.

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Speaker 2: To mother a Ryan, good to have you.

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Speaker 1: On the show. Tell me, first of all, how bad

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Speaker 1: is this on a scale of one to ten? How

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Speaker 1: worried are you?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think it's hugely concerning. I think ACC

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Speaker 2: quite frankly needs to lift its game, but I think

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Speaker 2: we do need to take a step back. I mean

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Speaker 2: ACC celebrated its fiftieth birthday recently. It's a big institution

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand. In the last financial year it's settled

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Speaker 2: about seven billion dollars worth of claims, four billion for

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Speaker 2: treatment costs, about three billion for a weekly compensation. We're

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Speaker 2: not talking about any financial sustainability risks in the short

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Speaker 2: to medium term. It's more about when you look at

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Speaker 2: what's called the OCL the outstanding claims liability for long

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Speaker 2: term and what we've seen through some factors like inflation,

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Speaker 2: treatment costs, population growth, we've seen significant rise in the

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Speaker 2: outstanding claims liability. But on saying that, there's two areas Ryan,

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Speaker 2: One is factors that are inside accs controls stuff that's outside,

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Speaker 2: like sometimes inflation and treatment costs. But I think they've

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Speaker 2: really got to focus on their rehabilitation rates. We've seen

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Speaker 2: them continue to decline and that's a big area that

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Speaker 2: I think that they can focus on to improve their position.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned the population growth. I mean, if the population

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Speaker 1: is growing, there should be more people paying into the

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Speaker 1: system too, right, So can't we cancel that one out.

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Speaker 2: Potentially? But when you look at sometimes the exponential factor

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Speaker 2: in the claims, it's what they've actually seen this year,

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Speaker 2: specifically the people claiming. They have seen more people claiming.

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Speaker 2: But like I say, there is levers inside their control

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Speaker 2: injury prevention. Does that rehabilitation rates.

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Speaker 1: When more people are is that over and above population growth?

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Speaker 1: Are we having more accidents when?

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Speaker 2: Why? Yeah? I think quite crudely, when you look at

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Speaker 2: those statistics, you could draw that conclusion. I don't have

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Speaker 2: the details on why that is, but like I say,

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Speaker 2: there's an ability for ACC to focus on the levers

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Speaker 2: that they have in their control. Our rehabilitation rates have

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Speaker 2: been declining over a number of years, so I've made

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Speaker 2: it very clear that there is to be the primary focus.

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Speaker 2: But also want to touch on another area, which is

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Speaker 2: about a third of that significant increase, And what that

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Speaker 2: is is court rulings that have changed some of the

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Speaker 2: entitlements and what we call boundary issues of their two generals.

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Speaker 1: Is it too generals?

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Speaker 2: Well, what the court has ruled in one area has

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Speaker 2: significantly increased the OCL by three point six billion dollars alone.

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Speaker 2: So those are areas that we need to look at all, right.

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Speaker 1: Well, very quickly, we literally have ten seconds left. Will

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Speaker 1: this mean levees will have to go up substantially? What

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Speaker 1: will it mean for us they're actually paying into it

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Speaker 1: almillst things be cut.

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Speaker 2: I won't get ahead of cabinet decisions, but what I

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Speaker 2: would say is that levees are only one lever, and

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Speaker 2: I don't expect levees to be used by default. I

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Speaker 2: expect ACC to lift their game around rehabilitation rates because

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Speaker 2: they should be ensuring that they are utilizing the income

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Speaker 2: they're getting from New Zealanders at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Fairly, Matt, dc ACC minister, thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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