This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'ACC board minutes - OIA request'.



 
Minutes of a meeting of the Board of the Accident Compensation Corporation held via 
teleconference, on Thursday, 26 March 2020 at 1.00 pm. 
 
Present 
Dame Paula Rebstock  
Chair 
 
Mr James Mil er 
Temporary Deputy Chair 
 
Ms Anita Mazzoleni 
Member 
 
Mr David May 
Member 
 
Ms Kristy McDonald QC 
Member 
 
Dr Tracey Batten 
Member 
 
Mr John Brabazon 
Member 
 
 
In attendance 

Mr Scott Pickering 
Chief Executive 
Mr Mike Tully  
Chief Operating Officer 
Mr John Healy 
Chief Financial Officer 
9(2)(a)
 
Senior Associate Company Secretary 
 
  Procedural Business 
 Apologies 
There were no apologies received.  
 Register of Members’ Conflicts of Interest 
The Board Chair noted that she was a member of the Auckland DHB Executive Emergency Board, 
which would be for the remainder of the COVID-19 crisis.  
CONFIRMED: The Board reviewed the Register of Members’ Conflicts of Interest Arising and 
confirmed that it was not aware of any other matters (including matters reported to, and decisions 
made by, the Board at this Meeting) which would require disclosure. 
 
 





 
  Committee Updates 
 Investment Committee 
Mr Miller provided an update on the Board Investment Committee 
•  From a governance perspective, the Committee was clear on the importance of keeping 
administrative matters away from the Investments team to ensure they could focus on 
making the right trading decisions in the current environment. The Committee deferred 
discussion on all administrative items on the agenda.   
•  The three papers approved by the Committee enabled repositioning of the fund to take 
advantage of risk assets and the potential for near-future capital raisings in the New 
Zealand market. A temporary decision on increasing the futures positions limits had been 
made by the Committee the previous week and was also approved.  
The Board Chair thanked Management for providing the weekly financial position update and 
noted that the Minister no longer required a weekly briefing and would be reverting to a monthly 
update. The Board Chair would inform the Minister and the Minister of Finance of any major news.   
  Board / Key Exec Only Session 
 Chief Executive’s Report 
The Chief Executive’s report to the Board highlighted:  
•  Business continuity through the move to level 4 of the COVID-19 alert system. Critical 
testing of ACC’s six priority areas had taken place on Monday 23 March. Capacity was 
available for more than 4000 users, with 2700 staff active on the new remote access 
platform. The investments made in technology had put ACC in a great position for moving 
to remote working. 
•  The Crisis Management Team (CMT) was meeting daily, with the Chief Operating Officer 
taking the lead and the Chief Talent Officer as back up if required. The Board would 
continue to receive the daily Situation Reports from the CMT.  
•  Calls into the ACC call centre had been high but were manageable. ACC call lines had the 
appropriate IVR messaging to direct callers to the right functions of ACC and direct queries 
regarding COVID-19 to Ministry of Health helplines. Messaging on the continuation of 
payments of weekly compensation would help with queues.  

 
•  Providers were beginning to get in touch with their financial challenges, which the team 
were working through. ACC had made changes to processes to ensure providers could 
access services. Ambulance services had already indicated that more funding would be 
required. Abnormal provider costs outside of contract were being captured to resolve at a 
later date.   
•  Other business as usual work was continuing. Tranche 2 of Next Generation Case 
Management was now fully operational. Management was looking at ways to remotely 
complete the last part of training for Tranche 3. Tranches 4 and 5 had been deferred but 
would be prioritised as work returned to normal.  
•  From next week, the Executive would shift its focus to the end of April to begin planning for 
the return to normality.  
COVID-19 Update 
Mr Tully joined the meeting and highlighted the fol owing:  
•  443 out of 847 vulnerable clients had been contacted and additional support requirements 
were being actioned. Al  others would be contacted over the coming days. Al  clients had 
regular communication plans in place. 1,120 out of 1,431 staff in ACC’s priority services 
now had active remote working and the technology issues for the remainder would be 
resolved on an individual basis as soon as possible.   
•  ACC was starting to see a steep drop in the number of claims registered. The February 
daily average was 9,536 new claims and as at Wednesday there had been 3,649 new 
claims. There had been a less notable change in weekly compensation volume trends – the 
average was 447 claims in February and that was now at 437. 
•  The feedback from staff on the communications received had been good, and the 
Executive was impressed with the staff response to the crisis.  
•  It had been confirmed that ACC provided an ‘essential service’ in the context of the 
nationwide move to level 4. This meant that all critical suppliers in ACC’s supply chain, 
such as Unisys, also provided essential services, and ACC could require that they 
continued to provide services in accordance with usual contractual arrangements. For 
clarity, not al  ACC functions were considered ‘essential’ and staff would continue to work 
from home. 


 
The Board discussed the specific mental health support required for staff during this time and 
wellbeing tips were being sent out as part of the regular updates. If any trends began to emerge, 
Management would ensure urgent action.  
The Board thanked the Chief Executive, Mr Tully, the rest of the Executive team and the CMT for 
all the hard work in response to COVID-19. The response was very thought-out and was 
exceptional in the circumstances.  
Climate Change Update 
The Chief Executive provided the Board with an update on the plan to deliver the climate change 
framework as planned for Board consideration at its meeting on 28 May 2020. While the current 
situation made the timeframe tighter, Management was stil  aiming to have updates at upcoming 
Board Investment Committees meetings and Board meetings, with a presentation of the draft 
framework at the 28 May Board meeting. If the Select Committee was stil  held in early June, ACC 
would be able to provide at that time an outline of the framework.   
The diagrams on pages five and six of Diligent showed how ACC’s Climate Change Policy was 
part of the wider Environmental, Social and Governance Framework and the various workstreams 
associated.  
 Governance of Corporation 
The Board Chair noted that during these uncertain times it was important the Board and 
Management had flexibility to make the required decisions and asked for a meeting 90-minute 
meeting to be set up in two weeks’ time for the Board to discuss any further updates.  
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to: 
(a)  Delegate authority to the Board Chair, the Temporary Deputy Chair, the Chair of Risk 
Assurance and Audit Committee and a fourth member depending on the issue to make any 
urgent decisions related to COVID-19, only if the decision cannot wait for the full Board to 
convene. 
(b)  Delegate authority to the Chief Executive up to $20m for any urgent COVID-19 related 
expenditure, on the condition he consult with the Board Chair or the Temporary Deputy Chair 
first.  


 
  Operational Reporting 
4.1(a) ICIP Reporting 
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to note the ICIP February 2020 Monthly Update. 
4.1(b) Operational and Financial Performance Report including Claims Costs 
The Board discussed the Report, noting that there should be an expectation of declining motor 
vehicle incident claims. Mr Healy noted that this was expected but was not included in the report 
due to timing.  
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to: 
(a)  Note the Claims Cost performance 
(b)  Note the Operational and Financial Performance 
(c)  Note the additional performance information 
4.2 Legal Report 
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to: 
(a)  Note 9(2)(h)
 
 
(b)  Note The Ng case wil  be heard in the Court of Appeal on 24 March, and counsel have been 
advising ACC on the approach to evidence received from the client’s lawyers. [As at 2 April, 
the case has been postponed. The Court of Appeal has advised that a new date wil  be set in 
due course with as much priority as circumstances allow.]  
(c)  Note The Court of Appeal judgement in the Stafford caveat case is expected this month.  
ACC’s legal team is preparing for the judicial review hearing in April and has advised Crown 
Law it would not support any letter from Ministers asking for notice to be given to Mr Stafford 
about any proposed land sales. [As at 2 April 2020 the caveat judgment from the Court of 
Appeal has not been released. Despite disruptions caused by COVID-19 it was understood 
that Court of Appeal judges were stil  working on reserved judgments so the judgment could 
stil  be imminent.  The fixture dates for the Judicial Review matter of 20 to 23 April had been 
abandoned. The new fixture dates are not yet available.] 




 
  Board Papers 
 Service Agreement 
The Board referred to its discussion on the budget.  
Mr Healy highlighted in relation to the Service Agreement the proposed change to the injury 
prevention return on investment separating workplace injury prevention, which had an expected 
lower return on investment. The Board asked Mr Healy to work with the Chair of the Risk 
Assurance and Audit Committee and Dr Batten to provide a more granular view on the injury 
prevention portfolios to better understand performance of specific initiatives.   
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to review the first draft of the SA20/21 and provide 
feedback as appropriate. 
 Budget and Economic Fiscal Update 
Mr Healy informed the Board that ACC’s budget had to be submitted to Treasury in April. The 
Board’s discussion focussed on:  
•  The four different scenarios presented in the paper. Mr Healy noted that Scenario D 
(Treasury Forecast) was the one that would be most appropriate to recommend to the 
Board and commented that other organisations would be similarly uncertain. The Board 
discussed Scenario C (‘GFC size’ Economic Shock), noting that the indication was that the 
impending situation would be worse than the GFC for New Zealand.  
•  The Board was clear that it did not want to be too optimistic and end up with budget targets 
that could not be met. For example, Scenario C might be the most likely, but there may not 
be the same impact on weekly compensation due to current factors – while a high level of 
new weekly compensation claims might not be expected, there might be less people exiting 
the scheme due to stronger incentives to stay on weekly compensation.  
•  Whether other factors further down in the organisation could be looked at. For example, 
motor vehicle claims were expected to decrease as a result of the lockdown, and this could 
be seen in petrol demand figures.  
•  There could no longer be an expectation that ACC would get the levy increases it was 
planning to seek in the coming years, or that ACC would even be able to undertake the 
planned levy consultation in October due to the current economic climate.  




 
Mr Healy noted that given the time available and the current uncertainty, there was limited time to 
run further full scenarios or other sensitivity analysis across the budget. The Board asked Mr Healy 
to work with the Board Chair, the Temporary Deputy Chair, the Chair of the Risk Assurance and 
Audit Committee and Mr May to iterate Budget, noting that it would come back to the full Board for 
approval.   
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to note the budget wil  be updated for any changes 
required by the Board and for economic factors as at 31 March 2020. The budget is required to be 
submitted to Treasury by 19 April 2020. 
 Employer Levy Postponement 
Mr Healy introduced the paper, noting the proposal to postpone sending Cover-Plus Extra invoices 
for a three-month period. This decision had minimal impact in terms of investment income. A 
further decision would come to the Board in May to propose delaying the annual levy invoices to 
businesses, which would have a larger impact.  
The Board discussed the importance of communicating this as soon as possible to provide 
certainty for businesses.  
ACTION: The Board asked for further background information on ACC business customer 
invoicing besides CPX.  
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to: 
(a)  Agree to postpone for a three-month period the sending of Cover-Plus Extra invoices that 
are due to be released from 1 April 2020. 
(b)  Note the intent to postpone annual invoicing, due to be sent mid July 2020, to all remaining 
business customers, for a three-month period. A final decision wil  be sought from the Board 
in May and wil  consider the status and impact of the pandemic to these customers at that 
time. 
  Board Administration 
 Minutes of Meeting held on 27 February 2020 
APPROVED: The ACC Board resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27 
February 2020.  





 
 Schedule of Matters Arising  
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to note the Schedule of Matters Arising. 
 Confirmation of Decisions Made Out of Cycle 
RESOLVED: The ACC Board resolved to note that there were no decisions made out of cycle for 
the period of 23 January 2020 to 19 February 2020. 
7.1 Annual Work Programme 
NOTED: The ACC Board noted the annual work programme. 
  General Business 
ACTON: The Board asked for external legal advice on ACC’s ability to support health workers who 
may become il  with COVID-19 during the course of their work. The Board asked that this be sent 
to Ms McDonald QC in the first instance.  
  Board Only Session 
Closure 
The meeting closed at 3 pm. 
Approved 
 
 
Chair …………………………………………………………. 
Date ……………………………… 
 

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