Page 3353 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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There is no question that it is too early to be able to make a fully informed judgement about the effect of the 2008 reform package and to assess the effectiveness of those reforms against the claims made by this government when those reforms were introduced. The three fundamental objectives which were sought by the government when Mr Stanhope presented the reform in November 2008 were to have a CTP scheme in the ACT that has a platform for licensing regulation and claims procedures broadly similar to schemes applying in New South Wales and Queensland, to foster competition by encouraging other insurers to operate in the ACT CTP market and so reduce premiums, and to improve health outcomes for people injured in motor vehicle crashes.
The opposition strongly supported the 2008 reforms, but we recognised that it would take some years for these reforms to have their full influence on the CTP market in the ACT. Indeed, it was my amendment that inserted the review clause requiring a review starting in October last year. It is about getting the balance right, particularly when legislating away people’s rights in the vain hope that we might achieve something else.
There are two significant groups of people to consider when debating the effect of CTP insurance on the cost of living. The first group is all those of us who pay CTP insurance premiums. A critical issue in consideration of CTP insurance is the level of premiums. These premiums are a significant cost-of-living issue for many thousands of people and families in the ACT. There is much concern about both the level of CTP insurance premiums and the rate of increase in those premiums year on year.
Mr Stanhope, when talking about the 2008 reforms, spoke about reducing premiums. Ms Gallagher and Mr Barr have talked about the effect of this latest bill on premiums. When the bill was presented by Mr Corbell on behalf of the Chief Minister, he said the bill “lays the groundwork for lower premiums”. Notice the very careful wording—not a promise for lower premiums, but it “lays the groundwork for lower premiums”.
When Mr Barr appeared before the public accounts committee in relation to this bill, he said ACT households and businesses derived relief from these significant cost pressures caused by the high CTP insurance premium. Immediately after Mr Barr said this, what did his officials say? The head of Treasury said that the bill “will put downward pressure on the increase in premiums”. Again, there was no reference to reducing CTP insurance premiums, just to slowing the rate of increase in these premiums. After the rather gung-ho comments made by Mr Stanhope—and we know we do not have an additional provider and we have had not lower premiums since the 2008 bill—more recent comments from this government recognise that actually reducing CTP insurance premiums is extremely unlikely irrespective of what action a government may take.
The second group of people are all of those who are injured as a result of a motor vehicle crash. These people typically have very real cost-of-living concerns, and, if we are being fair dinkum about dealing with everyone in our community, we must not ignore these people. What does this bill do for those who are injured? Again, there are two groups of people to consider. First, for those people who are assessed as having a
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