The ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) is denying support to people with noise damaged hearing if the person's total hearing loss is less than 6% with its enactment of the Accident Compensation Amendment Act 2010.
You can read all about the work NFD is doing in opposition to the threshold here.
Foundation CEO Louise Carroll and Policy Manager Dara McNaught have been in discussion with barrister Philip Schmidt about taking our case on to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
The Tribunal is a statutory body administered by the Ministry of Justice.
In order to take a case to the Tribunal, we need to be able to show for example:
• Whether the complaint raises a significant question of law
• Whether it affects a large number of people
• The level of harm involved for the complainants
• Whether the proceedings are likely to be successful.
We are in no doubt that we can meet the criteria specified. At the moment we are gathering the expert opinions required to support our case.
The Office of Human Rights Proceedings (OHRP) has received NFD's combined cases submission that the ACC 6 percent injury threshold and age deduction scale are discriminatory on the grounds of age and disability.
There is a national tragedy unfolding in our elderly population, and in an effort to address it, National Grey Power and NFD have combined forces in opposition to the 6% disability threshold and up to 12.5% aged threshold that ACC has introduced. Read the media release and download the fact sheet.