Page 1402 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Executive business—precedence
Ordered that executive business be called on.
Motor Accident Injuries Bill 2019
Debate resumed from 19 March 2019, on motion by Mr Barr:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (4.26): The opposition will not be supporting this bad legislation. The government has not addressed the significant issues raised by stakeholders and the Assembly inquiry. The Canberra Liberals continue to believe that Canberrans should have access to a comprehensive CTP scheme that supports the rights of motor vehicle accident victims and, therefore, we will be opposing what the government is proposing.
The Labor-Greens government was elected to represent all Canberrans. However, instead, what they are doing is representing insurance companies. They chose to entrust modifications of the CTP scheme to a citizens jury. I think they bamboozled the jury. The opposition believes that we should be engaging in meaningful ways with the community to determine all our policies. However, the complexities of the CTP scheme as such, in the short time frame and the detail, make it an unsuitable topic for a jury.
The jury had only a few weekends to come to terms with the complex nature of the current CTP scheme and then determine an alternative model. This is simply not enough time for the jury to make an informed decision. Jury members have stated their frustration with the way the jury was run, particularly with the lack of information presented on WPI thresholds and the practical operation of the models presented. One juror described the process as grossly corrupted and misleading before he walked out on the final day.
There has even been evidence the government tried to steer the outcome of the jury to select their preferred model. This is unacceptable and undermines the entire deliberative democracy process and does a disservice to those jurors.
The opposition has been inundated with messages from Canberrans who have had experience with the scheme, and they are passionate about this issue. However, these people were expressly excluded from being part of the citizens jury. We should have comprehensive public consultation on these important policy decisions and we should give appropriate weight to those who have knowledge of or have been personally affected by what is being proposed.
The Canberra Liberals are concerned that the rights of motor vehicle accident victims are being eroded by this legislation and that adequate compensation will not be fairly distributed. We are yet to be provided with the modelling which forms the basis of the current bill but, according to the Ernst & Young report dated 13 March 2018, the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video