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2008 N.Z. L. Rev. 81 (2008)
Accident Compensation in New Zealand: Looking Back and Looking forward

handle is hein.journals/newzlndlr2008 and id is 93 raw text is: Accident Compensation in New Zealand: Looking Back and Looking Forward SIR GEOFFREY PALMER* This article reflects the author s personal experience with the development of accident compensation policy and his involvement with Sir Owen Woodhouse, chair of the Woodhouse Commission which recommended the New Zealand scheme. Reflections are made concerning the uniqueness of the New Zealand scheme in the common law world. Attention is drawn to the challenge that accident compensation posed at its inception and still poses for the income maintenance systems as a whole. It is argued that future policy requires the inequalities that now characterize income maintenance in New Zealand and that result from accident compensation be addressed. Some analysis is also offered to show that costs will increase should the administration of accident compensation return to private enterprise. Introduction Accident compensation has played a pivotal role in my whole professional life. My experiences with accident compensation in the early years determined my entire future. Without it I would not have got into politics, would not have become interested in law reform, and would not now be President of the New Zealand Law Commission. I was retained, in conjunction with officials, to write Personal Injury: A Commentary on the Report of the Royal Commission of Enquiry into Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand, the New Zealand Government White Paper (the White Paper) on the accident compensation scheme that was published in 1969.' Later, in 1973, I was appointed as the *President, New Zealand Law Commission. My thanks to Zoe Prebble for her assistance with this article. 1 [1969] IVAJHRH 50.

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