Changes to the Accident Compensation System: An International Perspective 23 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 1993

23 Victoria U. Wellington L. Rev. 25 (1993)
Changes to the Accident Compensation System: An International Perspective

handle is hein.journals/vuwlr23 and id is 301 raw text is: Changes to the accident compensation
system: An international perspective
Terence G Ison*
New Zealand has had a comprehensive accident compensation scheme since 1974. In
1992 substantial alterations were made to the scheme. Professor Ison, one of the
world's most respected authorities on the subject, is critical of both the changes and the
process by which those changes were determined. Among other things, he notes the
disincentives to rehabilitation, the major drawbacks in experience rating, and the revival
of adversarial processes. The article is a revision of a staff seminar that was presented at
the Faculty of Law, Victoria University on 16 March 1993 while the author was a
visiting professor.
I INTRODUCTION
This article relates to some of the changes in the accident compensation system of
New Zealand that were legislated in 1992.1 Some of these changes are currently in
effect. Others are being implemented.
These comments do not reflect any detailed familiarity with the current operation of
the system. Indeed, I have not made a detailed study of the system in New Zealand since
1978.2 Most of the recent changes, however, are similar to changes made in workers'
compensation systems in Canada and some of the United States over the last decade.
One of the changes is similar to a feature of the workers' compensation system in the
Australian State of Victoria. Thus a comment on these changes from the vantage point
of a Canadian scholar may be of some interest, even though this perspective is
necessarily limited by a lack of familiarity with the context in which the changes will
operate.
II REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION
A paramount theme is a shift in the relationship of compensation and rehabilitation.
It has been traditional for compensation to be a statutory right and for rehabilitation
assistance to be discretionary. That tradition was reflected in the accident compensation
legislation of New Zealand. The 1992 changes shift the emphasis by purporting to
make rehabilitation more of a right, and by making earnings related compensation after
the first year more discretionary, or at least more judgmental.
* Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto.
1 Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Act.
2 For the results of that study, see T G Ison Accident Compensation: A Commentary on
the New Zealand Scheme (1980, Croom Helm, London).

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