ACC slashes Water Safety NZ funding
Tuesday, 4 November 2025
ACC is slashing funding to Water Safety New Zealand - a major move marking a turning point in the insurer’s new hard line on injury prevention, saying it had not observed a “measurable reduction in drowning injury claims”.
Gavin Walker, Water Safety NZ general manager of partnerships and funding, said ACC’s decision will “make a hard job a whole lot harder”.
“We've actually seen a reduction in the risk of drowning to New Zealanders… That's 25% lower than it was 20 years ago.
“We were making really good progress, but everything's at risk without continued funding.”
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Walker said there was already a problem in New Zealand “that there's a whole lot of kids who are actually missing out on good quality water survival support”.
“Our work with Stuff in the Life Savings programme is trying to close that gap, and then at the same time, government investment decisions make that gap even bigger than it's been for the last 10 years.”
ACC’s investment amounts to about a fifth of Water Safety NZ’s total income.
“That's 20,000 fewer kids, water survival, safe swimming programmes supported, subsidised through the school network, and it's 3500 of our community members who are most at risk of drowning who won't be engaged in education programmes a year, every year, from now on.”
Walker said New Zealand was not seeing increased numbers of drowning “as our population increases, and that should be something that we're celebrating, but unfortunately, we're here talking about funding having been reduced”.
The real impact would be felt by the organisations Water Safety NZ supported and “ultimately by Kiwis through increased drowning risk”, he said.
ACC’s deputy chief executive of engagement and prevention Renee Graham said it had been investing $1 million a year in water safety, and a partial funding of $825,000 for part of 2025/26.
“Despite this, ACC has not observed a measurable reduction in drowning injury claims, which cost around $3 million yearly.
“To ensure the long-term sustainability of the scheme, we need to focus our investment where the potential for claim reduction is greater”.
Graham said reviews of its injury prevention investments “help us understand where ACC funding can have the greatest impact”.
“For this reason, we’ve made the difficult decision not to continue future investment in the partnership effective from 31 March 2026.”
Graham said the agency would continue to support the sector through programmes such as Have a Hmmm, alongside other support the government provides to the sector including for front-line rescue services.
“This collective effort ensures that water safety remains a priority across the country.”
According to Water Safety NZ, there were 54 drowning fatalities to date this year - that was down five compared with the 10-year average. This time last year there was 60 drowning fatalities, which was down four on the 10 year average.
Water Safety New Zealand receives funding through Sport NZ, ACC and the Lotteries Grants to invest in community-led interventions.
Walker said his concern was “the ACC decision undoes all the good work that those of the two organisations have done in in trying to build a sustainable water safety community in New Zealand”.
Asked about how important water safety was for avoiding injuries and tragedies on Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was “really important”.
“We live in an island nation.
“We have funding from the government into schools to support some basic water skills for our kids, and obviously we encourage parents to do likewise and support their kids, whether it's take them down to the beach, spend time with them in the water, building their confidence, or formal instruction.”