Antarctic area defined as 'overseas'

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 4

Antarctic area defined as 'overseas'

Foreigners, and even some New Zealanders, who are injured in New Zealand Antarctic territory are not covered by the, Accident Compensation Act. The Ross Dependency was effectively excluded in a definition of the term “New Zealand” written into the Accident Compensation Amendment Act last, year, said the Accident Compensation Commission’s senior clairiis |>ffiecr in .Christchurch (Mr L. Dolan) yesterday. For the purposes bf the act,'the territory was .treated like any other overseas country. Workers who are directed to work there and derive an income from a New Zealand employer- are eligible for free medical treatment and compensation if they are injured. The cover lasts for. 12 months but, this-, period may be extended in .special circumstances. •-

‘ Others, including students and voluntary workers, are excluded, and they would have to ’take out medical insurance to receive similar benefits. Students from New Zealand universities regularly -visit the' Ross Dependency for study purposes, and two volunteers are sent by the New Zealand Antarctic Society to carry out restoration and maintenance work on three historic huts on Ross Island. If the air crash' which injured five Soviet scientists early this month had happened in New Zealand An-

tarctic territory, the Soviet Union would still have to pay for the scientists’ treatment at Dunedin Hospital. A report in “The Press” I yesterday • incorrectly . said that the scientists would have been entitled to free medical treatment in those circumstances.

Foreign seamen requiring hospitalisation in the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s area pay a flat- rate of $llO a day, regardless of nationality or the circumstances of the sickness or injury. ■

A shipping industry spokesman “said yesterday that mostly Korean- and Japanese fishermen required treatment.

“The $llO covers hospital and medical charges, X-rays-and other forms of prescribed treatment,” he said.