New South Wales Consolidated Acts

[Index] [Table] [Search] [Search this Act] [Notes] [Noteup] [Previous] [Next] [Download] [Help]

MOTOR ACCIDENT INJURIES ACT 2017 - SECT 1.3

Objects of Act

1.3 Objects of Act

(cf ss 5 and 6 MACA)

(1) This Act establishes a new scheme of compulsory third-party insurance and provision of benefits and support relating to the death of or injury to persons as a consequence of motor accidents.
(2) For that purpose, the objects of this Act are as follows--
(a) to encourage early and appropriate treatment and care to achieve optimum recovery of persons from injuries sustained in motor accidents and to maximise their return to work or other activities,
(b) to provide early and ongoing financial support for persons injured in motor accidents,
(c) to continue to make third-party bodily insurance compulsory for all owners of motor vehicles registered in New South Wales,
(d) to keep premiums for third-party policies affordable by ensuring that profits achieved by insurers do not exceed the amount that is sufficient to underwrite the relevant risk and by limiting benefits payable for soft tissue injuries and psychological or psychiatric injuries that are not recognised psychiatric illnesses,
(e) to promote competition and innovation in the setting of premiums for third-party policies, and to provide the Authority with a role to ensure the sustainability and affordability of the compulsory third-party insurance scheme and fair market practices,
(f) to deter fraud in connection with compulsory third-party insurance,
(g) to encourage the early resolution of motor accident claims and the quick, cost effective and just resolution of disputes,
(h) to ensure the collection and use of data to facilitate the effective management of the compulsory third-party insurance scheme.
(3) It must be acknowledged in the application and administration of this Act--
(a) that participants in the third-party insurance scheme have shared and integrated roles with the overall aim of benefiting all members of the motoring public by keeping the overall costs of the scheme within reasonable bounds so as to keep premiums affordable and of promoting the recovery and return to work or other activities of those injured in motor accidents, and
(b) that the law (both the enacted law and the common law) relating to the assessment of damages in claims made under this Act should be interpreted and applied in a way that acknowledges the clear legislative intention to restrict access to non-economic loss compensation to serious injuries, and
(c) that--
(i) the premium pool from which each insurer pays motor accident claims consists at any given time of a finite amount of money, and
(ii) the setting of appropriate premiums requires a large measure of stability and predictability regarding the likely future number and cost of claims arising under policies sold once the premium is in place, and
(iii) that stability and predictability require consistent and stable application of the law, and
(d) that insurers, as receivers of public money that is compulsorily levied, should account for their profit margins, and their records should be available to the Authority to ensure that accountability.
(4) In the interpretation of a provision of this Act or the regulations, a construction that would promote the objects of this Act or the provision is to be preferred to a construction that would not promote those objects.
(5) In the exercise of a discretion conferred by a provision of this Act or the regulations, the person exercising the discretion must do so in the way that would best promote the objects of this Act or of the provision concerned.



AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback