Page 3359 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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reforms proposed. Certainly, whatever happens, we are very open to options for reform and happy to discuss any further proposals in the next Assembly.
The Greens do not support the provisions in the bill that will arbitrarily limit access to compensation for non-economic loss. We cannot agree that there should be a single above and below threshold that sees an injured person either in or out. Similarly, we do not agree that the discount rate should be increased just because that is what happens in other jurisdictions.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (11.39): I thank Mr Smyth and Ms Hunter for their contributions.
In bringing this legislation forward, the government have been clear that our aim is to reform the CTP insurance system in the territory. The government have considered how best to deal with the cost-of-living implications of CTP premiums and how to offer better health outcomes for claimants. Our reforms seek to address those issues by increasing competition in the market, leading to reduced costs of premiums for households and for business.
There are about 263,000 CTP premium payers in the territory. Each of those would be aware that premiums have risen by 50 per cent in the past four years. On 1 September this year the average family car CTP premium cost will be $578.70. This puts registration costs above $1,000 for the first time. Providing competition among CTP providers in the territory is one reform that will be facilitated by this bill. Increased competition will provide an incentive for insurers to improve claim handling and to place downward pressure on premiums. In the absence of these reforms, there is no likelihood of another insurer entering our market, due to our small pool and the risk profile that previous speakers have alluded to.
Members may be interested to note that documents sought by the Law Society and recently released by Treasury relating to legal costs since 2000 indicate that over $77 million has been paid to Canberra legal firms, including $8.2 million in 2008, almost $10.3 million in 2009 and around $8.1 million in 2010. I was interested to note that the Law Society walked away from the release of information about fees paid to individual firms; perhaps in the future, in this era of greater transparency, these costs could be further investigated.
These reforms will also provide a system that focuses on return to health for people who are harmed in a crash, aligning the territory’s CTP scheme more closely to those of other jurisdictions. The provisions in the bill are not particularly new. As speakers have alluded to, the permanent impairment threshold to access damages for non-economic loss comes from legislation that was passed in the New South Wales parliament last century. The New South Wales Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999 reflects various iterations of the threshold concept as a gateway to NEL under common law in every other jurisdiction except the Northern Territory, where a 100 per cent no-fault defined benefit scheme is in place.
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