Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 19th, 2009 - Comments Off
Hat tip: Labour.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, November 18th, 2009 - 10 comments
It looks like the government’s sleight of hand on ACC is about to pay off. Having put up a clearly outrageous proposal to hike motorbike levies and thus made it the focus of anger over the ACC changes the government is now signaling they will back off. Thing is, they were never going to ramp …
Written By: - Date published: 2:16 pm, November 17th, 2009 - 43 comments
Just got away from the bikoi at Parliament. What a sight. At least 6,000 people they reckon. The lawn and half the forecourt covered. Tui flying overhead joining in the fun. The bikers know are they being treated unfairly and National is using their levy money to pay for false propaganda for levy increases. They …
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, November 12th, 2009 - 5 comments
A very well-produced youtube vid on National’s distortions over ACC The clever thing National has done is set up ACC as the agent of its own demise. With Business Roundtable member John Judge in charge ACC has become a propaganda wing for National’s anti-ACC rubbish. Judge and Nick Smith have created a false air of …
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 4 comments
Frogblog has another example of the continuing politicisation of the public service under National. I meant to post on this a while back, but you may have seen these ads in your local paper recently: Not only is the ACC’s message in this ad contrary to the Woodhouse principles it was founded on, but there’s …
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, October 28th, 2009 - 19 comments
One of the Right’s silly myths, never backed up by any facts, is that not privatising ACC leads to more injuries. The logic (and it’s a logic only the money-obsessed could come up with) is that private workplace insurers would charge higher premiums for dangerous workplaces and lower premiums for safer workplaces – this would …
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 28th, 2009 - Comments Off
This memo was sent by the Insurance Council to its members in 2005 but it may as well have been sent this week. Because as sure as National was keeping its agenda secret and having clandestine talks with the insurers about privatising ACC in 2005 they will be having the same talks under wraps while …
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 24th, 2009 - 14 comments
So – Labour have stood up for ACC. Bravo! History repeats. In the last year of the last National government (1999) they flogged off the profitable parts of ACC cover to their mates in the insurance industry (“opened ACC to competition”). The incoming Labour government reversed those changes and re-instated ACC as the sole provider …
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 59 comments
National is going to privatise ACC. As part of the deal for support on its ACC cuts and levy hikes from the Maori Party and ACT, it will be privatising ACC’s Work Account (the part paid by employers for workplace accidents). First, there will be a perfunctory report provided by the ACC Stocktake Group, a …
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, October 21st, 2009 - 8 comments
Here’s Tariana Turia on Q&A last Sunday, responding to a question from Guyon Espiner about National’s plans for ACC: I’m very concerned and one of the reasons why I’m really concerned is that there’s been a lot of talk about privatising the work account. Now the face of it is that’s the only account that …
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, October 21st, 2009 - 24 comments
It is a reflection of the schizophrenic nature of the Maori Party that one day they’re professing to care about poor Maori who are apparently missing out on their ACC entitlements and the next day they’re backing privatisation of ACC, which would lead to even worse outcomes for those Maori, because it might be a …
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 31 comments
When asked to explain why they want to start privatising a world-leading institution like ACC, National and ACT tend to fall back on the excuse that it will somehow lead to lower ACC premiums. Of course, the international experience and every independent report that’s been done shows the exact opposite, but they can always point …
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 18 comments
The Maori Party has decided it will support National’s changes to ACC despite Tariana Turia just two days ago saying she was “very concerned” about those changes. Here’s their explanation for their latest flip-flop: “We know that Maori have consistently had less access to ACC entitlements than other groups, under existing legislation. While this Bill …
Written By: - Date published: 2:51 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 5 comments
Tim Hazledine, a professor of economics at the University of Auckland, has a nice piece in the Herald today that lays out just how absurd National’s spin about the ACC “blowout” really is. Suppose you and your spouse are in charge of a family of, say, three young children. That means you are legally responsible …
Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 32 comments
John Dalley makes a good point in the comments section of our last ACC post: About now would be a good time for Labour to state publicly that they will do away with private insurers when next in government. I say absolutely right. It would throw a spanner in any plans to privatise the ACC …
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 20th, 2009 - 5 comments
It seems certain National will begin the privatisation of ACC starting with opening the work account to private competition. As happened in 1998, private insurers will cream off large and low-risk employers with loss-leading special deals to gain market share, leaving the taxpayer to shoulder the burden of the rest, and put up premiums later. …
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 8 comments
Today hundreds of people around the country marched against the cuts to sexual abuse counselling due to be implemented by ACC next week. The protests were widely covered by the media, with excellent coverage by both TVNZ and 3News. I was at the Auckland march where a couple of hundred people turned up to rally …
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 53 comments
Last Thursday, Colin Espiner was mocking all of us who said that National and other rightwing groups were trying to create a sense of crisis around ACC to soften us up for privatisation: “That somehow this is all just a VRWC* to derail the ACC, lower public confidence in it, and then sell it to …
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 6 comments
Last week, David Parker asked Nick Smith what the “whole-of-life cost to ACC of all new claims” for the last year were. Smith’s answer surprised everyone because it made no sense. He told us that claims made last year alone would cost $7 billion over their lifes. If that were really so, ACC’s liablities would …
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, October 19th, 2009 - 12 comments
A fascinating interview with the Sir Owen Woodhouse in the Herald today. Sir Owen has led an amazing life – after helping supply Yugoslav partisans fighting the Nazis, he rose through the ranks of our judiciary becoming a Privy Councillor and President of the Court of Appeal, and is still going strong at 93. His most enduring achievement, …
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, October 18th, 2009 - Comments Off
[Pulling the following comment from Toad in Open Mike up to the front page.] If you are in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin tomorrow, please try to find the time to support the protests against ACC’s proposed cuts to sexual abuse cover and therapy. There are protests organised for this Monday 19th October: AUCKLAND: Meet …
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, October 16th, 2009 - 40 comments
The other day, John Key said “ACC’s investment portfolio had not been working well”. Now, if there’s one golden rule regarding people with power it’s never take what they say for granted. And that’s never been more true than with this Prime Minister. So, I took a look at ACC’s annual report (Colin Espiner et …
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 am, October 16th, 2009 - 30 comments
Colin, I think we need to discuss your work: the conspiracy theory peddled by Labour and the EPMU (i.e. Labour) that somehow this is all just a VRWC to derail the ACC, lower public confidence in it, and then sell it to the highest (or any) bidder just doesn’t ring true for me. Don’t you …
Written By: - Date published: 4:23 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 32 comments
It seems National has a problem with numbers. First they fudge the numbers for ACC so they can claim a “blow out” and now they can’t even get the numbers to pass their legislation. You heard correctly. After all of that hoopla about how ACC is in crisis and how they need to strip entitlements …
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 37 comments
The Herald’s editorial today largely reads like it was written by Nick Smith and John Judge, so let’s use it as the basis for some spin-busting (my source is the ACC annual report unless otherwise mentioned): opponents say any change would be a prelude to privatisation. Yet all this exaggeration could not disguise the fact …
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 13 comments
Answering the question you wish you were asked rather than the one you were is a common PR tactic (to a point) when speaking to the media. Watching a cabinet minister try the same trick in parliament really starts to unveil this government’s contempt for democracy (though this example is perhaps not quite as bad …
Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, October 15th, 2009 - 5 comments
Very good editorial on ACC in The Independent today. The article’s offline, but it’s quite clear about why the Government is trying to manufacture a crisis over the financial position of ACC: ACC currently collects sufficient levies to meet each year’s claims – it has levy revenue of $4.1b in the 2009 June year, compared …
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 5 comments
From October 27th, survivors of sexual violence will only be eligible for ACC funded counselling if they are first diagnosed with a mental illness. Firstly, you don’t need to have a mental illness to need a few counselling sessions after going through a traumatic and disempowering experience. Why should a survivor miss out on services …
Written By: - Date published: 5:49 am, October 14th, 2009 - 6 comments
How do you get someone to change their mind about something they like? Simple, find one negative element to it (nothing is perfect) and blow it into a major issue. Nick Smith knows how to do this, he’s built a career on it. Now, he’s trying to make compensation payments to criminals the issue in …
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, October 13th, 2009 - 23 comments
Labour’s David Parker has been a bit slow reacting to National’s latest attack on ACC but now he’s in play he has a killer point to make: if ACC cover is cut, the costs of what was paid for by ACC will still have to be paid for by society somehow. The treatments and lost …
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, October 12th, 2009 - 26 comments
Do any health insurance companies fully fund long-term claims in the way ACC is being asked to?
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