Will the last one to leave ACC please turn out the lights?

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, June 21st, 2012 - 20 comments
Categories: ACC - Tags:

To paraphrase Mr Wilde, losing 1 board member looks unfortunate, but losing 4 & a CEO looks like a minister losing control of her portfolio. As much as the botox allows, Collins didn’t look happy when board member number 4 quit. But mama said never trust a tory. Expect the Nats to try to turn events to their advantage. Privatisation isn’t off the table.

20 comments on “Will the last one to leave ACC please turn out the lights? ”

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  1. Carol 1
    21 June 2012 at 10:38 am

    Indeed, this is what a spokesperson for an ACC lobby group argued on Morning Report this morning @8.43am.

    As for Crusher, is it any co-incidence that Tolley is crowing about Collins legacy in the last 24 hours, with some cars set to be crushed…. assisting in bolstering Crusher’s tough image?!

    Although, to be fair, the ACC Lobby spokesperson reckoned Crusher hadn’t been thinking of privatising ACC as she was talking about restoring confidence in it. The spokesperson reckoned the indications for privatisation being on the agenda come from elsewhere in the government. Also Crusher was at first open to discussing pay-as-you-go.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/vernon-small/7143131/Funding-issue-brews-in-ACCs-cauldron

    • bbfloyd 1.1
      21 June 2012 at 11:45 am

      It would be instructive if a list was compiled of current ministers that actually have any real input into their own portfolios…….I would guess that it would be a very short list indeed……

  2. Adrian 2
    21 June 2012 at 11:20 am

    Did you see the car? the Idiot Tolley said that it was a boy racers pride and joy. Yeah right. It is a rooted ,engine, gearbox and suspension less piece of shit without a straight panel. The rear badge even read ENIMA. It looks like another classic Gore switcheroo. Priceless!

    • Carol 2.1
      21 June 2012 at 11:33 am

      Didn’t see the crushed car before crushing, but did see the smiling Tolley posing astride the crushed car, looking pretty weak and unstable in high heels, desperately trying to look like a triumphant dominatrix street-fighter.

      What sort of a role model is someone taking such delight in wanton destruction?

  3. tsmithfield 3
    21 June 2012 at 12:16 pm

    The current state of ACC provides the strongest argument for privatising the whole damn thing.

    • tc 3.1
      21 June 2012 at 12:34 pm

      Current state of ACC TS really means the ministers and their appointed stooges, system has issues but by and large works well whereas the minister and cronies leave alot to be desired….there FIFY.

    • Colonial Viper 3.2
      21 June 2012 at 3:26 pm

      The current state of ACC provides the strongest argument for privatising the whole damn thing.

      The current state of the Christchurch rebuild and the US medical system provides the strongest argument for canning private insurers.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.2.1
        21 June 2012 at 5:24 pm

        +1

        Private insurers are only there for the free money, when they have to pay out they try not to.

        • burt 3.2.1.1
          21 June 2012 at 8:49 pm

          when they have to pay out they try not to.

          That’s sooo different from ACC…. Hello !

    • Georgecom 3.3
      21 June 2012 at 8:22 pm

      or maybe the strongest argument for a change of government

      • burt 3.3.1
        21 June 2012 at 8:34 pm

        Yeah that will work, then we can pretend there is noting wrong for 3 more years while the festering dysfunction that is ACC serves the best interest of ACC.

        • Georgecom 3.3.1.1
          21 June 2012 at 9:29 pm

          Burt. The festering problem with ACC may go on a couple more years. Come 2014 there the chance to get a Government in place that can actually sort some things out rather than lurching from one crisis to another.

  4. deuto 4
    21 June 2012 at 1:22 pm

    And yet another twist in the ACC saga –

    Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) staff are receiving financial incentives to kick long term claimants off the corporation’s books official documents show, the Green Party says.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10814534

    Question Time should be interesting this afternoon when the Minister of ACC responds to question 3.

    KEVIN HAGUE to the Minister for ACC: Can she confirm that staff in ACC’s Recovery Independence Service teams receive more or less remuneration dependent on whether the proportion of people receiving weekly compensation is less or more than specified duration targets?

    • Te Reo Putake 4.1
      21 June 2012 at 1:28 pm

      That was the arrangement under the privatised ACC in the late nineties. Organisations like Workbridge were paid large lump sums for every claimant they got off the books. If they thought the clients were faking it, then the surveillence unit of ACC would set up the long cameras, quiz the neighbours, go through the trash, etc.
       
      Shameful stuff.

  5. Treetop 5
    21 June 2012 at 3:19 pm

    Collins line re ACC is, “it’s an employment matter.” When the board starts dropping like flies the culture is rotten in the engine room.

    • burt 5.1
      21 June 2012 at 8:36 pm

      The culture has been rotten in the engine room for years. The board dropping like flies is excellent news.

  6. xtasy 6
    21 June 2012 at 9:04 pm

    ACC -sigh!

    What a bloody mess, and seeing Collins face the questions by the excellent Kevin Hague, she is not a happy “Crusher” anymore. That is not for the fact that she never got around to do what Tolley did with childish glee today. It is for the exposure of the total rot behind the scenes, the agenda to throw particularly long term and costly claimants off their entitlements and benefits.

    Performance bonuses through the ranks, that is what has been going on for years, and I am afraid, this may not have started simply under National.

    Anyway, it is disgusting and appalling, a bit like paying hunters and shooters for the culling of animals.

    As a person who has sadly had to deal with WINZ at times, I see so many similarities to how that department is run and operates. There was at least years ago talk about WINZ case managers also getting “performance pay”. I wonder whether this is still going on.

    What they have been doing since 2008 though, is training “designated doctors” to work well with them, to “understand” the WINZ system and goals they follow. Also those doctors of course get payed for “assessing” clients or applicants.

    I am looking forward to Bennett to announce the second tier of welfare reforms, and to see, what that will involve. I fear that there will be massive assessments of sick and invalids, to also “achieve” outcomes as ACC has been trying to achieve.

    Maybe though she is doing a bit of thinking and rethinking after all these exposures of what crap goes on within ACC? Given recent comments by her, it does not seem so.

  7. xtasy 7
    21 June 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Collins also likes to fob off questions by Hague and others, by simply claiming: “That is an operational matter”. Bring back more ministerial responsibility, is what I think, because no-one believes for a moment that the Minister knows little or nothing about what ACC and other agencies they may be in charge of do. Ultimately it is the government setting the policy framework and making the laws through Parliament.

    Any “operational matter” within any agency or department headed by a Minister is certainly also a matter for the responsible Minister to be accountable for.

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