CTP Changes On Hold

A Kanahooka man is a walking – albeit aided – example of a crash victim who’ll be worse off under “draconian” changes planned for the state’s CTP insurance scheme, Labour says. The 64-year-old was injured in an accident in June.

The man was driving south on the Princes Motorway at Albion Park Rail when the vehicle in front of him stopped. He was able to pull up a car length behind that vehicle, but what happened next has left him scarred. He watched, via the rear-view mirror, as a car hit him from behind.

“She (the driver) hit me with force; the impact cracked my head forward… and I felt shooting pains down both arms into my fingers, my legs went numb,” he said.

The man had to be cut from his vehicle, was in a neck brace for four days after the accident and now uses a walking stick to get around.

Under the proposed CTP changes, if he doesn’t meet a certain criteria for ongoing treatment he will be cut off after five years, vice-president of the NSW Law Society’s Wollongong and district chapter Melinda Griffiths said.

“So, you can imagine, for the rest of his life… he’s on his own. He doesn’t get ongoing treatment, he doesn’t get ongoing care,” Ms Griffiths said. “There’s a belief out there that if you are less than 10 per cent whole-person impairment that your injuries are therefore minor. “I see plenty of people who do have major injuries who are less than 10 per cent.”

Labor’s spokeswoman for better regulation, Yasmin Catley, joined the party’s Wollongong by election candidate, Paul Scully, on Friday to discuss the “draconian nature” of the planned CTP changes. “The reality is that the government will be reducing benefits to innocent victims if their proposed changes go ahead,” Ms Catley said, adding the by election was the reason the government had pressed pause, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation Victor Dominello said the government was “committed to delivering a fairer Green Slip scheme for both injured road users and motorists”.

“It is not fair that only 45 cents in every green slip dollar goes to injured road users, nor is it fair that NSW motorists are being asked to pay the highest premiums in the country,” he said.

This article was originally published in the Illawarra Mercury. Some names have been withheld for privacy reasons.