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ACC killed Kennedy says Smith

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 18 comments

Fresh on the heels of allegations ACC has blown-out and is likely to decimate New Zealand’s credit rating, Accident Compensation Minister Nick Smith has revealed he has evidence of the public insurance scheme’s involvement in the assassination of loved American President John F. Kennedy. The revelations were announced by Smith in select committee late this […]

CTU busts ACC spin

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 7 comments

Over the last week or so the Government, and Nick Smith in particular, have run a dishonest PR campaign to undermine ACC and soften up the public for cuts and eventual privatisation. In response, the Council of Trade Unions has put together a helpful fact sheet to set the record straight and bust some of […]

Cutting through the spin on ACC

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, March 13th, 2009 - 37 comments

We’ve heard a lot of panicky comments in the last few weeks about a ‘cost blowout’ at ACC. We’re told there is $22 billion in liabilities with $12 billion unfunded. That sounds bad, but what does it actually mean and what’s really happened? ACC used to be a ‘pay-as-you-go’ scheme. No money was put aside […]

Experts: National lying over ACC

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 12th, 2009 - 46 comments

The wheels are starting to come off National’s PR campaign to undermine ACC as more and more people notice the gap between their spin and the reality. This morning’s Dom Post has an interesting article [offline*] where the managing director of actuaries Eriksen & Associates refutes Nick Smith’s lies about the “cost blowout” and the […]

How to reduce ACC costs without cutting cover

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 32 comments

The sensationalist tone of media releases regarding the financial situation at ACC has ignored the causes behind this so called ‘blow out’. The investment losses have been a big part of it but there is also a rising accident rate stemming from our ageing population and climbing obesity rates, which has been foreseen by medical experts for some time. We […]

Shafted

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 11th, 2009 - 17 comments

This is good. Here’s what ACC’s ads might look like once National’s had its way with it: [Hat tip: Clarke in the comments]

What they’re hiding

Written By: - Date published: 6:24 am, March 11th, 2009 - 41 comments

Interesting to see that the new ACC board chairman, John Judge, is an alumnus/affiliate member of the Business Roundtable. That’s the same Business Roundtable that has consistently said that: “the introduction of a state monopoly, no-fault accident compensation scheme in New Zealand had been a huge mistake” and argued “for the introduction of choice and […]

Softening up

Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 26 comments

A few points on the ACC issue and one on Kiwirail. Nick Smith says that, with assets of $10 and liabilities of $21 billion, if ACC were an insurance company it would have gone under years ago. But it’s not an insurance company. Because its costs can be met by the sovereign revenue raising power […]

NRT on National’s ACC antics

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 15 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about National’s attempts to beat up ACC’s costs in order to soften the ground for privatisation (see Farrar’s latest post here as an example), but No Right Turn captures it perfectly: During the election campaign, National attempted to minimise concerns that it would privatise ACC, saying merely that it […]

Played like a fiddle

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 4th, 2009 - 93 comments

Yesterday, when the inquiry came back on whether the shortfall in ACC funding should have been disclosed in the PREFU, Bill English quickly tried to implicate Michael Cullen and Maryan Street as being in breach of the Public Finance Act and told media: “The previous government knew about the funding hole and effectively hid it. […]

The final cut

Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, December 18th, 2008 - 1 comment

Merry Christmas from National

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, December 17th, 2008 - 28 comments

National’s decides to hit workers in the pocket: ACC Minister Nick Smith yesterday said levies would increase from $1.40 to $1.70 for every $100 earned from next April. The employer and self-employed levy would rise from $1.26 to $1.31. Recommendations by officials to increase motor vehicles levies and lift registration fees by $50 would not […]

Spinbusting: the anchor-story

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, December 4th, 2008 - 52 comments

There’s a lot of talk about the ACC budget deficit and National’s use of the issue to create an environment in which their privatisation scheme can roll with the minimum political fall-out. Any doubt I had that this was their plan evaporated this morning when I heard Nick Smith on RNZ moving the story along […]

Laying the foundations

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, December 3rd, 2008 - 46 comments

Let’s not fool ourselves that what we’ve seen from National over the last 24 hours on to the shortfall in the ACC non-earners account hasn’t been carefully managed in a way to lay the foundation for their arguments in favour of privatising the scheme. I won’t go into a lot of detail around their motives, […]

A smoke-screen for the privatisation brigade

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, December 3rd, 2008 - 21 comments

Now that didn’t take long. Well rehearsed from the 1990s, National has already started using the privileged position of government to conjure up bogeymen to get their unpopular privatisation agenda past the public. John Key called an urgent press conference yesterday to beat-up a $1b shortfall in ACC funding. ‘OMG, this ACC thing is out […]

A clear choice on ACC

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, October 29th, 2008 - 48 comments

If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: – $200 million in profits flowing offshore, according to John Key’s former employers Merril Lynch – higher levies on most workers, as private insurers cherry-pick the most profitable for themselves, leaving the […]

The Standard line: ACC

Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 22 comments

So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That’s where our election series,The Standard line, comes in. The info you need in bite-size form. Today, ACC: Pro-ACC […]

On botox and pet grooming

Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, August 8th, 2008 - 41 comments

Pansy Wong’s supposed outrage over ACC “shelling out $750,000 for staff to indulge in day spas, manicures, and botox” has nothing to do with the organisation’s health and wellness programmes and everything to do with National’s attempts to prepare the scheme for privatisation. First off, her attack is utterly dishonest. ACC, like many large employers […]

The War on P

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, July 22nd, 2008 - 9 comments

National Party strategist and Dominion Post columnist Richard Long declared war on “P” today. The “P’” word that is. Privatisation. Labour and the unions have attacked the proposed ACC changes by using the scare word “privatisation”, whereas the policy is actually aimed at providing choice in an area which is at present a monopoly.’ Actually […]

Will you vote for higher levies?

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, July 21st, 2008 - 20 comments

If National wins the election, it will privatise the Work Account of ACC (and maybe other ‘profitable’ accounts). We know that this may have negative effects on coverage for workers but the problems go further taking out the Work Account may compromise the whole ACC system. Every year, ACC needs to run a surplus so […]

Nats unable to justify ACC policy

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, July 18th, 2008 - 46 comments

Unlike some of our counterparts, the Standardistas aren’t into vanity posts. So, in this clip from TVNZ7’s Back Benches on Wednesday, ignore who’s asking the question and watch National’s Chris Tremain try to justify his party’s ACC policy. Reaches for his cliches but they don’t fit the question so he resorts to attacking the question. […]

ACC and the rhetoric of ‘choice’

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 17th, 2008 - 23 comments

National says its ACC policy will provide ‘choice’ on accident compensation, but choice for who? Employers will be able to choose between a variety of competing (mostly private) insurers, but for the likes of you and me we’ll have to take what we’re given and pay the consequences of our employers’ bad choices. We won’t […]

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