Better accountability needed

A report more than $100 million in ACC claims has been paid out for ski and snow injuries since 2013 should be greeted with alarm.

The Accident Compensation Commission provides essential cover through a no-fault scheme New Zealanders all contribute to through some means.

Sporting injuries continue to rise in New Zealand and ski and snow injuries do not even make up part of the top five most costly sports for ACC to cover. Latest figures suggest ski and snow injuries are included in the ''other'' ranking behind rugby union, soccer, cycling, netball and fitness training/gym.

So far this year, there have been more than 9100 active claims made in New Zealand for snowboarding or skiing injuries.

In the Queenstown Lakes district, there have been more than 4440 active claims made in 2017 and about $4.3 million has already been paid out. An active claim is one for which a payment has been made in a particular year, regardless of the year the claim was made.

A report earlier this year found rugby was the leading sport for injury payments. The most up-to-date figures showed the sport cost $76 million in 2015, up from $67million in 2013.

One factor in the rising injury rate has been an increase in people playing sport, particularly rugby, the report said.

ACC promotes itself as a caring organisation. The previous National-led administration continued to cut taxpayer contributions because of the financial health of the government department and the managing of the ''tail'', the people with long-standing problems who are either being helped back into the workforce or have continual hurdles to cross to keep their payments coming.

A recent report on ''Solving the Problem'' with ACC, which was produced by the University of Otago's Legal Issues Centre, focused on causes, transparency and access to justice in New Zealand's personal injury system.

The report strongly recommends establishing a personal injury commissioner and making other changes to help the many injured New Zealanders whose claims are declined each year by ACC.

ACC remains a great scheme, according to the report's first author Warren Forster, of Dunedin. But he warns until real action and changes occur, the same problems will remain.

A review conducted for the State Services Commission and government agencies in 2014 also highlighted the pendulum effect and the way ACC seems to swing between a focus on claimant satisfaction and public trust and confidence in some periods and improving financial performance in others.

A no-faults scheme is by far the fairest way to deal with injuries, whether they are through motor vehicle accidents, falls at home or on the ski slopes of Queenstown and Wanaka. However, given professional rugby players have contracts with their various overseeing bodies, a simple insurance scheme will ensure taxpayers do not end up footing the bill for injuries which can mean an All Black sitting out another six months in rehabilitation.

Likewise, skiing is an expensive pastime, along with motor racing, high-level cycling or any elite sport. Whether it is fair for people on the minimum wage to be somehow contributing to the rehabilitation of those elite athletes may need a rethink.

The most important part of ACC is people do not need to sue. People with surgical-mesh related claims will follow the process so many New Zealanders have completed, all without having the ability to sue medical practitioners.

ACC disputes claims it turns down up to 300,000 claims each year, saying the number is more like 70,000. The department deals with about two million claims a year, a phenomenal number for a population of nearly five million.

For ACC to continue to build public trust, it needs to be more open with its decision-making process. Public trust is improving but the system on which New Zealanders depend, still has some work to do.