Carmel SEPULONI
Victims Rights spokesperson
Friday, 15 April 2011
ACC Minister needs to sort out culture in his corporation
Nick Smith must take action to ensure ACC is focused on delivering vital counselling and support services to sexual
abuse victims instead of defending senior advisers who threaten legal action against those who raise concerns, says
Carmel Sepuloni.
“The situation where ACC’s senior medical adviser Peter Jansen slapped a $250,000 lawsuit on a sexual abuse victim over
her blog should never have been allowed to happen.
“Labour understands this is not the first time that employees/ contractors to ACC have taken this approach to critics of
ACC’s changes to counselling services for sexual abuse victims.
“The ACC Minister claims Peter Jansen is acting as a private individual rather than an employee of the corporation. But
Peter Jansen is in fact taking legal action against people who criticize his actions as an ACC adviser. You cannot
separate the two.
“As Minister, Nick Smith should have been advised about the legal action. Clearly there is poor communication between
him and his own officials.
“This whole debacle is a symptom of a culture that Nick Smith has defended and continues to defend within the
corporation. He should stand up and say publicly that this kind of behavior from the ACC adviser is unacceptable.”
ENDS