I was very new and working in New Zealand when two major trans-Tasman revolutions occurred: accident compensation in Australia and accident compensation in New Zealand.

It was also when I realised my desired future as a GP was not for me, when I became an urban stirrer and through an underground medical journal called Proctoscope began my career of battling the establishment.

I read of the threat of the socialised medicine beast across the Tasman. But as an emergency GP at weekends, I developed a love of New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC, the entity responsible for administering the country’s no-fault accidental injury compensation scheme).

You see, you didn’t bill the patients – you billed the government. And there were two bills: one for the basic rebate and one for the rebate from the ACC that you sent directly.