The Minister coordinating the Government’s response to the mosque terror attacks says all victims are being supported, but not necessarily through ACC.
Despite opposing advice, Andrew Little said Cabinet stood by its decision not to extend ACC cover to include those who weren’t physically injured in the March 2019 attacks but suffered mental distress.
It comes after Abdur Razzaq, of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, told Breakfast yesterday the decision not to extend ACC cover to all victims wasn’t fair because it seemed to arbitrarily differentiate the support various groups received.
Currently, ACC covers people with physical injuries, but not mental health injures unrelated to work or unrelated to sexual abuse.
So, for instance, if someone who was employed at the mosques at the time witnessed the massacre, they would be covered by ACC. However, if they were at the mosques as a worshipper at the same time, they wouldn’t get ACC cover.
It was also revealed yesterday that Treasury may have been in favour of an extension of ACC cover for all victims in this instance, but took issue with the method of payment. That goes against a previous understanding Treasury was the agency who advised Cabinet Ministers against the proposal.
It left Razzaq questioning why Cabinet had turned down the proposal of extension despite ACC, Treasury, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development all supporting it. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terror attacks also recommended the extension.
Little told Breakfast this morning Cabinet Ministers can “bring their own thinking” into decisions and didn’t necessarily have to follow their agencies’ advice.
“The way we run ACC is we run [it] on the basis that whoever would qualify in a set of circumstances, whoever would suffer a trauma because of witnessing a horrific act and needs support, then you make that policy decision,” he said.
“If we made that policy decision, it would go way beyond the dreadful and tragic terrorist act of Christchurch in March 2019. It would apply to a lot of circumstances.”
While New Zealand should have a wider discussion about how ACC functioned “at some point”, Cabinet didn’t feel the single incident of the terror attacks was the right time to do so, Little added.
A paper presented to Cabinet in July 2019 recognised the inconsistency in cover for some victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks. It said it was “appropriate to provide [ACC cover] for those who can establish they have suffered mental harm”.
The paper also noted ACC was “well-placed to administer this support” because they were already providing support to those physically injured in the attack and to mentally injured workers.
FIANZ’s Abdur Razzaq questions why Treasury advised against expanding ACC cover to all suffering mental distress. (Source: Other)
The Cabinet paper said Section 265 of the Accident Compensation Act would allow ACC to “perform services outside of its normal functions” under a direction by its Minister. Therefore, it said new ACC legislation likely wouldn’t be needed if cover was extended to all victims.
When asked why Section 265 wasn’t used in this instance, Little said it wasn’t possible to isolate the terror incident.
Had ACC cover been extended, it would have been “justifiable” for others who suffered mental trauma from witnessing other horrific events to ask for cover too, Little said.
“ACC works because we set out a set of conditions and circumstances in which you qualify, and everybody who meets those circumstances gets the entitlements under ACC.”
Warren Forster says if it’s true Treasury did support the ACC extension, then Cabinet's decision "beggars belief". (Source: Other)
He said everyone wanted to ensure the Muslim community got the support they needed but there was a question of fairness.
He said ongoing support was being provided to the Muslim communities affected by the attacks through the Ministry of Health, the DHB and the Ministry of Social Development.
Little said the Collective Impact Board also continued to give victims support.
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