Emails reveal booklet could have meant higher settlements

new-zealand-labour-party

Wed Aug 24 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Emails reveal booklet could have meant higher settlements

Wednesday, 24 August 2016, 4:22 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Megan Woods
MP for Wigram
Canterbury Spokesperson
MEDIA STATEMENT

24 August 2016

Emails reveal ‘useless’ booklet could have meant higher settlements

Documents released to Labour under the OIA show the Government’s scrapped insurance advice booklet could have led to higher settlements for Southern Response customers, says Labour’s Canterbury spokesperson Megan Woods.

“Today, Gerry Brownlee stood up in Parliament and swore black and blue that the Government’s controversial insurance advice booklet was scrapped because it was ‘useless’.

“But emails from the insurance industry to the government reveal warnings that the information would have cost ‘millions of dollars’ in higher settlements, including from Southern Response.

“Gerry Brownlee is trying to hide the fact that his Government bowed from pressure from big insurers worried about their bottom line, and is now trying to claim that a booklet the government spent seven months and hundreds of staff hours on contained no useful information.

“He’s having to resort to throwing five different government agencies work under the bus rather than admit his Government didn’t have the guts to stand up for local people in the face of pressure from the insurance companies.

“It’s simple: if this booklet was so useless, why were insurance companies warning of the impact it could have on the government purse?

“People in Canterbury need a Government that is committed to them and will stand up for them instead of folding when big insurers come calling. National has clearly shown they won’t do that. Cantabrians should be able to expect better,” says Megan Woods.

ENDS

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