Clause 4 amends the definitions of moped and motorcycle to align with the definitions in the Land Transport Act 1998. (The principal Act currently refers to the definitions in the Transport (Vehicle and Driver Registration and Licensing) Act 1986, which was repealed in 2009.) Clause 4 also replaces the definition of medical practitioner, with the effect that the definition is now found in regulation 3 of the Accident Compensation (Definitions) Regulations 2019. This is consistent with the approach to other definitions in the principal Act.

Clause 5 amends section 17, which sets out the requirements for a person to be considered ordinarily resident in New Zealand. Section 17 provides that, in certain circumstances, children and other dependants outside New Zealand may be considered ordinarily resident in New Zealand for the purpose of the principal Act. The amendment inserts bespoke definitions of child and other dependent into section 17 (previously, these terms had the global definitions in section 6). The new definitions align with the approach taken to children and other dependants of deceased claimants in clause 70 of Schedule 1.

Clause 6 extends the definition of accident in section 25. An accident now includes an application of a force or resistance internal to the human body at any time from the onset of labour to the completion of delivery that results in an injury described in new Schedule 3A to a person who gives birth.

Clause 7 amends section 26, which defines personal injury. Currently, personal injury includes any degree of hearing loss that is 6% or more of binaural hearing loss caused by a personal injury described in section 20(2). The amendment reduces this threshold to 5%.

Clause 8 amends section 30, which relates to personal injury caused by work-related gradual process, disease, or infection. Currently, a person has cover under section 30 if they suffer a personal injury caused by a gradual process, disease, or infection in the circumstances described in section 30(2). Section 30(2) contains the following 3-step test:

• a person must perform an employment task or be employed in an environment that has a particular property or characteristic; and

• the particular property or characteristic must cause, or contribute to the cause of, the personal injury and not be found to any material extent in the person’s non-employment activities; and

• the person must be at significantly greater risk of suffering the personal injury than those who do not perform the employment task, or be employed in a type of environment where the risk is significantly greater.

The amendments reinstate the 2008 3-step test, which is as follows:

• a person must perform an employment task or be employed in an environment that has a particular property or characteristic; and

• if the property or characteristic is present in both the person’s employment and non-employment tasks or activities, it must be more likely that the personal injury was caused as a result of the employment tasks or environment than the non-employment activities or environment; and

• the ACC may decline the claim if the ACC establishes that the risk of suffering the personal injury is not significantly greater for others who perform the employment task than it is for persons who do not perform it, or is not significantly greater for others who are employed in that type of environment than it is for persons who are not.

Clause 9 amends section 91, which relates to the conduct of initial occupational assessments. The effect of the amendment is that, when considering the suitability of the types of work referred to in section 91(1)(b), an occupational assessor must (rather than may) take into account the claimant’s earnings before the claimant’s incapacity.

Clause 10 amends section 119, which provides for disentitlements from cover for self-inflicted personal injuries and death due to suicide. The amendment provides that section 119(1) does not apply if a claimant’s death was as a result of an assisted dying procedure under the End of Life Choice Act 2019.

Clause 11 amends section 173. Section 173(1) provides that the ACC may require an employer to pay a levy based on the ACC’s reasonable estimation of the levy. The ACC must refund any amount greater than $20 that is overpaid, together with interest if the refund exceeds $1,000. Currently, interest is paid at a rate prescribed by regulations under the principal Act. The amendment provides that the regulations may instead prescribe a method by which the interest rate is calculated. This enables the interest rate (which is now reviewed every 2 years, instead of annually) to reflect market changes.

Clause 12 amends section 250, which enables the ACC to charge interest and penalties on late payment of levies. The amendment to section 250(1) means that the ACC is able to start charging interest or penalties on late payments from the day after the date on which those payments are due (instead of 30 days after the date on which payment is due).

Clause 13 amends section 267 to increase the maximum size of the Board from 8 members to 9 members.

Clause 14 amends section 329, consequential on the amendment to section 173.

Clause 15 amends Schedule 1AA to insert the following transitional provisions that apply to some amendments made by this Bill:

• claims for personal injury including hearing loss that, at the commencement of clause 7, have been lodged with the ACC but not decided will continue to be dealt with as if clause 7 had not been enacted:

• claims for personal injury caused by work-related gradual process, disease, or infection that, at the commencement of clause 8, have been lodged with the ACC but not decided will continue to be dealt with as if clause 8 had not been enacted.

Clause 16 amends Part 2 of Schedule 1, which relates to weekly compensation payable to a claimant by the ACC. The amendment inserts new clause 31A, which enables the ACC, when determining a claimant’s earnings for the purposes of calculating weekly compensation, to take into account their most recent employment income information (as defined in section 3(1) of the Tax Administration Act 1994) available from the Inland Revenue Department. A claimant’s right to apply under section 134 for a review based on their actual earnings is not affected.

Clause 16 also amends clause 49 to address an unintended anomaly that arises where an injured veteran receives more than 100% of their pre-incapacity earnings through a combination of compensation under the principal Act and compensation under the Veterans’ Support Act 2014 (the VS Act). Currently, in this situation, the ACC is required to reduce (or abate) its weekly compensation payments (see clause 51 of Schedule 1 of the principal Act). Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand is then required by the VS Act to top up the ACC’s abated payments to the amount that an injured veteran is entitled to under the VS Act (see sections 64 and 102 of the VS Act), which means that the ACC must once again abate its payments (and so on). The amendment addresses this issue by excluding from the definition of earnings in clause 51 payments of weekly compensation and weekly income compensation under the VS Act (which means that these payments are not required to be abated).

Clause 17 inserts new Schedule 3A into the principal Act, which describes maternal birth injuries for the purposes of new section 25(1)(f).

Clauses 18 and 19 relate to the Accident Compensation (Definitions) Regulations 2019, which are amended consequential to the amendment in clause 4(3) to the definition of medical practitioner in section 6.

Clauses 20 and 21 relate to the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation (Interest Rate for Late Payment of Levies) Regulations 2002, which are amended consequential to the amendment to section 250.