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The New Zealand Outdoors & Freedom Party (NZOFP) has issued a scathing response to new ACC data revealing that 2025 was the highest year on record for Covid-19 vaccine injury compensation.
Party board member and prominent musician Aly Cook, speaking as both a party representative and the mother of a vaccine-injured adult son, is demanding an end to the systemic dismissal of those harmed.
“The vaccine figures show how many vaccine injury claims have been blocked for many years. This ongoing blocking of support for the vaccine injured is seriously calculated abuse by the state,” said Cook.
It’s legally and ethically wrong and must stop now. People trusted the government claims that the novel mRNA vax was safe and effective. Those claims were false and many suffered. The state must compensate without any further abuse of delay.
ACC’s January 2026 Treatment Injury Refresh shows cumulative payouts have reached $16.88 million. However, the party points out that 2025 payouts were nearly double the annual average of the initial rollout years, proving that the medical and financial toll is escalating, not receding.
A mother’s fight against bureaucratic gatekeeping
For Aly Cook, these statistics represent a gruelling personal journey. Her adult son was formally diagnosed with vaccine-induced pericarditis by independent specialists, yet their path to support was marked by a combative legal environment of review hearings and for some people this leads to the district court.
“I am not just talking about numbers: I am talking about my son’s life and the lives of thousands of other New Zealanders,” says Cook.
We have had to fight every step of the way. Many claimants present clear, official diagnoses from top cardiologists and specialists, only to have ACC use its own hired specialists to question those clinical findings. This forces the injured, already suffering and often unable to work, into a ‘battle of the experts’ that can include formal independent reviews, intense hearings, and ultimately, the District Court for some.
The ‘hidden’ figures and excluded costs
The NZOFP’s analysis of the latest ACC report highlights a disturbing lack of transparency regarding the most severe cases. The party notes that the public $16.88 million figure excludes the most high-impact payments:
- Lump Sums for Permanent Disability Payouts for the 18 individuals officially assessed with 10 per cent or more permanent impairment (loss of function) are missing from the total.
- Fatality Support: The costs for funeral and survivor grants for the families of those whose deaths were officially linked to the vaccine have been left off the public balance sheet.
- The Review Backlog: As of late 2024, nearly 400 reviews had been lodged for declined claims. Some of these have now reached court in 2025, contributing to the record-breaking payout year.
Demanding a Ministerial Review
In an open letter to the minister for ACC, Aly Cook and the NZOFP are calling for recognition and a public apology. NZOFP calls for an immediate investigation into the “Long Legal and Review Battles” forced upon claimants and an improvement in the service. “The 2025 cost peak proves the dam is breaking,” says Cook.
The government can no longer ignore the testimonies in the documentary The Tribute, which is releasing one episode every week with the testimony of diagnosed vaccine injured New Zealanders.
We need a system that honours the ‘no-fault’ promise of ACC, rather than one that hires specialists to undermine the clinical diagnoses given by the patient’s own treating doctors & specialists. My son’s battle (he will feature in a future episode) shows that the system is failing the very people it was built. Many injured are too unwell to fight ACC and are falling through the gaps but are in part what is crushing our health system.
The figures of ACC simply do not match the figures of Medsafe OIAs that show the number of reports of serious injury being at 20,435 reports including hospitalisation or prolonged hospitalisation at 5779 and disabling or incapacitating at 8099 reports (note reports not persons)... it just doesn’t marry up with ACC’s 1812 claims accepted.
Summary of January 2026 data
- Total Claims Lodged: 4,286
- Total Claims Accepted: 1,812 (42 per cent)
- Cost Trend: 2025 recorded the highest annual payout in the scheme’s history
- Total Payout to date: $16,877,835 – Key Exclusions: Permanent impairment lump sums and fatality compensation
This article was originally published by the Daily Telegraph New Zealand.
