Comments on: First, manufacture a crisis…

By: Politicisation of ACC continues at The Standard

Politicisation of ACC continues at The Standard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:18:25 +0000

[...] It should come as no surprise that ACC is doing the Government’s dirty work on this issue. You’ll remember Nick Smith turfed out Ross Wilson because he knew Wilson was too committed to the principles of ACC and the people it’s supposed to protect to play along with National’s manufactured crisis. [...]

By: ACC fracas 'truly dumb' at The Standard

ACC fracas 'truly dumb' at The Standard — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:51:47 +0000

[...] fact is there is no crisis at ACC. Nick Smith and John Judge have tried to convince us there is one by exploiting public ignorance [...]

By: Told you so: Right pushes ACC privatisation at The Standard

Told you so: Right pushes ACC privatisation at The Standard — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:02:26 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Fiasco after fiasco at The Standard

Fiasco after fiasco at The Standard — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:23:16 +0000

[...] they fudge the numbers for ACC so they can claim a “blow out” and now they can’t even get the numbers to [...]

By: The Independent on National’s ACC agenda at The Standard

The Independent on National’s ACC agenda at The Standard — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:27:20 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: BLiP

BLiP — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:04:05 +0000

In that case the same applies to anyone who has a mortgage. Your logic is flawed. So is National Ltd®’s

By: Swampy

Swampy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:28:24 +0000

You claim “the media got taken in by the same trick six months ago”. The only reference I can find dated back six months is this one:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10559739

The facts are plain: the shortfall in the earners’ account is not some sort of creative accounting invention as you seem to imply. That shortfall actually does exist.

By: Labour drops the ball at The Standard

Labour drops the ball at The Standard — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:42:10 +0000

[...] ACC. Nick Smith is busy manufacturing a crisis and Labour is nowhere to be seen. It took David Parker three whole days to even get a press release [...]

By: Marty G

Marty G — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:33:58 +0000

lol, neat reference

By: mickysavage

mickysavage — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:16:49 +0000

Which planet are you currently residing on?

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:44:35 +0000

Excellent, Is everybody here under twenty.?

By: Daveo

Daveo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:35:36 +0000

Brett, your post at the bottom opens with:

“Sorry must have got that wrong.”

Sounds like fail to me.

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:19:12 +0000

Check out the bottom post f-uck face.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:15:24 +0000

brett = fail

By: Lew

Lew — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:03:17 +0000

George,

Well, yes and no. Depends on what you consider that they want. They want to privatise ACC in order to get it off the books and shore up the insurance industry, but I think electoral success is going to be the priority, and any programme of privatisation only get underway once a second term is in the bag, and a new and stronger mandate for change has been achieved.

As far as I see, the prime danger for them is in moving too quickly or too soon, resulting in an abortive privatisation attempt, as last time. This is why the building of public intolerance of the ACC system is critical to the strategy. Deny enough patients cover, starve the bureaucracy to depress standards of service, and massage the books to make it look like they’re dysfunctional and insolvent as well as stingy and incompetent, get the electorate hating ACC hard enough, and they’ll beg the government to sell it to insurers for a song.

For this to work for the government, it’s critical that the impetus for these changes comes from within the operational hierarchy of ACC, rather than the ministerial level. This puts opponents to the changes — such as the NZAP — in an invidious position of having to support ACC in the abstract, while attacking its operational decisions. ACC’s opponents need to fight the changes at the political and ministerial level, because by criticising ACC they may end up winning battles while endangering the war. Nick Smith’s ability to stand up in the house and say ‘it’s an operational matter’ is a powerful tool in turning privatisation’s opponents against their own cause. All criticism of ACC must be crystal clear: we do not oppose the system, we oppose the government who has set it up to fail.