CTU MEDIA RELEASE
10 June 2008
National - please explain re ACC
The Council of Trade Unions is asking the National Party to please explain its stance on ACC. Pansy Wong was quoted last
Friday as saying "we're committed to choice in accident compensation". The same report in the National Business Review
said that Bill English has made similar comments.
Richard Wagstaff, CTU Vice-President said today that "when National last promoted so-called choice in accident
compensation cover it was a disaster. One of the providers, a subsidiary of HIH Insurance, had up to 40 percent of
workplace cover, yet HIH went into liquidation with losses of around $1 billion. Fortunately, the Government had by then
changed ACC back to public provision".
PriceWaterHouseCoopers recently released a report on the ACC scheme and said that they had formed 'a moderately strong
view that a government monopoly is the best observable mechanism for implementing the ACC employers account'.
Richard Wagstaff said that it is not clear what the National Party means by choice. Do they mean the same policy as in
1998? Which accounts do they want to open up for private insurance companies?
He said "workers really value the reliability of the current ACC scheme. They deserve answers from the National Party on
what their intentions are".
ENDS