National still failing to take responsibility for ACC counselling disaster

The Minister of ACC Nick Smith is trying to avoid taking proper responsibility for the plainly unjust cuts in ACC funded counselling for victims of sexual crimes, Labour’s ACC spokesman David Parker and Victims Rights spokesperson Lynne Pillay say.

“The Minister was repeatedly and clearly warned, by clinicians and the Labour Party that his changes were so obviously wrong,” David Parker said.

“The Minister’s attempt to blame this all on the ACC Board should not be accepted. Why have a Minister if he will not take responsibility in the face of prior warnings?

“In some months the number of people being approved for counselling following sexual crimes has been 90 percent lower than previously. The Minister tried to defend this.

“The latest justification asserts that a change to the law is needed, this excuse is another example of slippery behaviour. No-one has shown that providing counselling to victims of sexual crimes is illegal.

“If it was, then ACC had been acting illegally for years, and the latest reinstatement of counselling would itself be illegal if that argument were accurate.

“Similarly, the Minister’s attempt to blame the prior government doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It was the current government that introduced the requirement to prove mental illness rather than mental injury.

“This cannot be blamed on either the prior government or the Massey University guidelines. In fact the current government’s misuse of those guidelines lead to Massey publicly disassociating from ACC’s changes to their guidelines.

“The public record on this is clear for all to see the Minister and his hand picked Board are responsible, and should accept accountability.

Victims Rights spokesperson Lynne Pillay said the changes that had been introduced by National had been a disaster.

ENDS

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