Government announces privatisation of ACC

The Government's plan to privatise work coverage of ACC will undermine our world leading system and lead to more suffering for accident victims, said the Green Party today.

This morning ACC Minister Nick Smith announced that the Government plans to open up the ACC work account to insurance companies. The Government will release their proposals later this month, the Minster told the Reviewing NZ's Accident Compensation System conference.

"Part-privatisation of ACC will cut support to vulnerable accident victims. It will result in unfair and uneven support for accident victims. This decision is a result of National's ideological commitment to privatisation and it will make the system worse," said Kevin Hague, Green Party ACC spokesperson.

"Part-private models will not work - we have seen this in Australia, and last time New Zealand did this in the late 90s. It is clear that the National Government, despite its protestations, is committed to
privatisation.

"There was no financial crisis in ACC. It is now abundantly clear that a 'crisis' was manufactured by the Government to undermine and privatise ACC. In 2009 when the 'crisis' was supposedly happening, ACC took in a billion dollars more than it spent on claims.

"An independent review of the changes to ACC is needed to ensure that accident victims receive the support they deserve," said Mr Hague.

Nick Smith also confirmed that there will be cuts to injury prevention programmes as he did not believe in 'PC feel good programmes', added Mr Hague.

"Injury prevention programmes are a vital part of promoting health and safety. The Minister statement that they are not needed because they are 'PC' shows how deeply flawed his approach to ACC is - his approach is all about cost cutting, not promoting safety.

"The Minister has already cut the very highly regarded falls prevention programme for older people. Cutting ACC injury prevention programmes will be a disaster unless they are properly funded from elsewhere, said Mr Hague.

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