Earlier this week the National government was once again caught fudging figures about ACC. When they took office, they manufactured a financial crisis in ACC in order to justify hiking levies and carving it up for privatisation. The cynical nature of their crisis beat-up was highlighted when just a few months out from an election they suddenly decided ACC was in great shape and the levies should be cut again.
Now it’s been revealled that this year’s Budget, the one in which Nick Smith heralded ACC’s dramatic turnaround, over-stated the savings ACC is supposed to be making. Documents obtained by Radio NZ under the OIA show that the Government ignored warnings from the Labour Department before the Budget that Treasury figures on proposed savings from ACC were too optimistic. The Labour Department predicted savings of $400 million over the next three years, but Treasury said $580 million would be saved.
Nick Smith has been all over the place on ACC figures. One minute it’s having a financial crisis the next he is ignoring Labour Department advice in order to make the Government’s financial position look better than it otherwise might. Nick Smith and National simply cannot be believed when it comes to ACC. There was never a crisis. ACC is an excellent scheme and National should stop trying to sabotage it so that they can make bigger profits for the Aussie insurance industry.
Is there anything NAct has not lied about in order to further their nasty agenda of looting NZ’s Public Assets?
Yes, we all know how reliable treasury numbers are- arent they the ones who ‘predicted’ about 150,000 new jobs.
No wonder they are unusual in having their budget increase, now we know why.
Smith used the previous financial crisis to show the ACC was ‘losing money’ on their investments but now we have a new financial crisis the drop in value of the investments is no longer a concern.
Like all Governments they pick and choose to rely on Treasury or not. It’s a policy decision not a numbers decision.
How come they never discuss this
“ACC Partnership Programme
The ACC Partnership Programme offers significant levy discounts to employers who take responsibility for their own workplace health and safety and the management of workplace injuries.
Under the ACC Partnership Programme, the employer takes over responsibility for employees’ work injury claims. This includes the delivery of all statutory entitlements, such as weekly compensation for lost earnings.
Employers must meet stringent criteria to enter, and maintain participation in, the ACC Partnership Programme. Generally, the programme is more suited to larger employers (defined as those who pay more than $100,000 in annual ACC levies)”
Bleepin ACC lies!
!
$400 million or $580 million saved – either way it is in better shape than before.
Still if we had real competition the savings to the economy would be even bigger. Give employers and employees a choice. If ACC is as good as you think it is they will stick with the scheme. What is the worry? Perhaps the reality is that you recognise it is a poor cousin to a competitive model and fear it won’t stack up?
darrenw, what do you think of the ACC Partnership Programme?