COMPENSATION FOR HOUSEWIVES

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 12

COMPENSATION FOR HOUSEWIVES

(New Zealand Press Association*

WELLINGTON. December 21.

“Steps will be taken to include in the Accident (Compensation Act those recommendations of the Woodhouse Royal Commission which the present act omits, such as the inclusion of housewives and other non-earners,” said the Minister of Labour (Mr Watt) today.

Mr Watt was announcing the membership of the Accident Compensation Committee.

Its chairman will be Mr K. L. Sandford, the Crown solicitor at Hamilton, and the other members will be Mr J. L. Fahy, at present regional controller for the Inland Revenue Department at Auckland and. temporarily, Mr A. R. Perry, Deputy Secretary of Labour.

Mr Sandford has been on the council of the Law Society. In addition to an extensive practice in workers’ compensation, he has been Crown solicitor in Hamilton for the last 20 years. “GREAT VALUE”

Mr Watt said that because the Inland Aevenue Department would be the principal agent for the collection of levies under the earners’ compensation scheme, Mr Fahy’s intimate knowledge of the work of the department would be of great value. Mr Perry, for two years, was chairman of the interdepartmental committee considering compensation legislation and thus was principal adviser to the Government on the development of the Accident Compensation Act, Mr Watt said.

Mr Perry wanted to return to the Labour Department as soon as the commission’s

work programme was successfully launched.

Mr Watt said that the commission membership had

been proposed by the previous administration and was endorsed by the present Government.

MEDICAL ADVICE

He also announced that, with Mr Sandford’s concurrence, Dr A. C. A. Coombes. of Auckland, the president of the Medical Association of New Zealand, had accepted an invitation to act as medical consultant to the commission until its medical director was appointed. “The Accident Compensation Act is a measure of farreaching importance which will govern the rights of most New Zealanders who suffer personal injury by accident after the new' compensation schemes come into force.” said Mr Watt. "A heavy responsibility will rest on the commission which will administer the new legislation.”