On the heels of a significant rise in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll—which now places the NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party (NZOFP) at 1.7%, the party has officially unveiled a cornerstone of its 2026 General Election platform: the ACC Justice & Accountability Statement.
Launched today by NZOFP List Candidate and policy development lead Aly Cook, the two-pronged strategy is designed to fundamentally dismantle the "adversarial culture" currently embedded within the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). The policy arrives as the party gains momentum, positioning itself as a serious contender for voters demanding a total overhaul of the systems that have failed New Zealanders.
The centerpiece of the policy is the "One Doctor" Rule, which mandates that the diagnosis of a qualified New Zealand Medical Specialist or GP be final, ending the era of ACC "expert shopping."
Part 1: Ending the War on the Injured
"This is about every Kiwi who has ever been let down by a system that is supposed to catch them when they fall," says Cook. "In my own family, I have seen the money spent on fighting what our specialists had to say regarding both a hernia and a vaccine injury. It is a universal struggle against a system that has lost its way."
Cook’s son’s experience serves as a harrowing example of the current breakdown of our health & ACC systems. "His story involves lost records and referrals vanishing between four different hospitals while he suffered from pericarditis. But the worst part was the systemic bullying, “ACC stacked their own hired cardiologist against my son's cardiologist in a vicious battle at ICRA. When the system spends taxpayer money to hire 'experts' specifically to discredit a patient's own treating specialist, it is just wrong, and it needs to change."
To fund this change, Cook identified a $61.5 Million "Justice Dividend" by cutting the bureaucracy used to deny claims.
The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party's audit of bureaucratic waste includes:
- $16.5 Million on the salaries and superannuation of 150 Internal Review Specialists whose primary role is to re-evaluate already professional medical diagnoses.
- $22.5 Million in bulk-funding for outside agencies like FairWay and ICRA to manage a dispute process that should not exist in a collaborative system.
- $18.4 Million spent on external "expert" reports—frequently used as a tool to contradict a claimant's own doctor and justify declining support.
- $4.1 Million drained by external legal fees and the mounting costs of taking these disputes through the court system.
"That is $61.5 million every single year that could be moved away from the lawyers and the paper-pushers and put directly into surgeries, rehabilitation, and frontline care,"
Part 2: The Pfizer Breach of Contract Policy
The second phase of the package utilizes part of the one year of $61.5 million savings to hire a world-class legal team to pierce the "indemnity shield" protecting Pfizer and reclaim costs for injured New Zealanders.
Newly obtained OIA data from January 2026 reveals that the true cost of vaccine-related injuries and deaths has been underrepresented.
"In January, ACC released a proactive figure of $16,877,835, but we quickly realized the figures for the six COVID-19 vaccine deaths and permanent injury claims were omitted. When you add the $1,284,253 paid to the families of those who died and the $819,580 in permanent injury payouts, the new figure spent on COVID-19 vaccine injury and death is $18,981,668." — Aly Cook
The Accountability Strategy includes:
- Piercing the Indemnity Shield: Pursuing Pfizer for Breach of Warranty on the basis that they failed to provide transparent efficacy and safety data during procurement.
- Statutory Right of Recourse: Amending the Accident Compensation Act 2001 to allow ACC to recover costs from manufacturers in cases of fraudulent science or deceptive safety claims.
- Full Transparency: The immediate release of the unredacted New Zealand Pfizer contract.
"The New Zealand government has acted as Pfizer's unpaid insurance company while the ACC acted as its defense lawyer," Cook concludes. "We should be taking some the $61 million they currently use to fight you, and we are using it to fight for you. One Doctor. One Decision. Full Accountability."
Full Policy Statement is here NZOFP - The ACC Justice & Accountability Policy Statement