4 Sep 2012

Rebstock confirmed as ACC board chair

10:39 pm on 4 September 2012

Paula Rebstock has been confirmed as the new board chair at the Accident Compensation Corporation.

Privacy breaches at the corporation were recently the subject of investigations by the Privacy Commissioner and the Auditor-General.

Ms Rebstock, who previously chaired the Commerce Commission and the Welfare Working Group, was named as interim chair in June after the departure of John Judge and has been formally appointed to the position for a three-year term.

ACC Minister Judith Collins says Ms Rebstock has served the ACC board well throughout a challenging time and demonstrated a commitment to culture change at the corporation.

But Opposition parties doubt Paula Rebstock will do this.

Labour's ACC spokesperson Andrew Little says Ms Rebstock is the Government's go-to person, but he does not believe she will bring about change.

"Paula Rebstock is steeped in a very right-wing view of ACC as an insurance company and, in my view, we will just see a continuation and an extension of the very sorts of problems that we've seen in the last three or four years."

The Green Party's ACC spokesperson, Kevin Hague, says Ms Rebstock has been an ACC board member since April last year.

"She was a member of that board under the Nick Smith/John Judge regime. And what is required of ACC is something fundamentally different from the performance of the board under that regime.

"I don't know that Paula Rebstock understands that completely and is capable of making that complete change."

Ms Rebstock's other current roles include chairing the Work and Income Board overseeing the Government's welfare changes and leading a State Services Commission investigation into the leak of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cabinet papers.

Meanwhile, three other new ACC board members have been appointed: Public Trust chair Trevor Janes, Professor Des Gorman of the Auckland School of Medicine and Kristy McDonald, QC.