To: Matt Doocey, Megan Main, Scott Simpson
Justice for Trauma Survivors Abroad: ACC Must Fund Counselling for All Sensitive Claimants
We call on the Minister for ACC, the Chief Executive of ACC, and the ACC Board to immediately:
- Reinstate access to fully funded trauma counselling for all accepted sensitive claimants living overseas.
- Remove the requirement for reassessment in Aotearoa for overseas-based survivors with accepted claims.
- Develop transparent and accountable decision-making frameworks, including a clear definition of “special circumstances” and proportionate set of criteria regarding overseas funding.
- Conduct an independent review of current policies regarding offshore survivors, with a focus on systemic bias against transgender, disabled, and Māori survivors.
- Establish a transparent appeal process for any survivor denied access to overseas treatment under their sensitive claim.
Why is this important?
No matter who we are or where we come from, we all deserve to heal with dignity and safety at its core. For survivors of trauma, access to services that nurture healing in a healthy way are paramount - and this support shouldn’t end at our borders.
I’m a survivor of trauma with an accepted sensitive claim under ACC. But the moment I left New Zealand — for safety, for healing, for survival — ACC cut off my access to the counselling I was promised.I’m transgender, disabled, and neurodivergent. Trauma support isn’t optional for me. It’s survival.
ACC’s current policy is cruel. It forces people like me to fly back to Aotearoa — sometimes at great risk — just to be reassessed for support we’ve already been approved for. Others have been left without any care at all, as if their pain matters less once they leave the country.
I know I’m not the only one. I know there are others — Māori survivors, queer survivors, disabled survivors — who’ve been silenced, cut off, and left to suffer in silence overseas.
This matters because trauma doesn’t respect borders, and neither should care - sign this petition and together we can make a change!
