Chris Hipkins
Spokesperson for ACC

15 July 2011

ACC not broke, doesn’t need fixing

A new report released today shows once again just how flawed National’s plans to carve up ACC and flick it off are, Labour’s ACC spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.

The report, by economist Peter Harris, raises serious questions about National’s plans to partially privatise ACC, arguing that there is little evidence that it needs “fixing”.

“It points out that the Government is relying on assumptions and half-baked data to implement its sell-off plan. And it finds that uncertainties surrounding private insurance makes partial privatisation ‘an even worse option’,” Chris Hipkins said.

“ACC has produced a cash surplus each year since 2008. Nick Smith has been beating up a crisis in ACC that just didn’t exist. The fact that they’re cutting levies just a year after they were hiked up shows just how cynical they’ve been.

“It is reprehensible that National has generated this bogus situation to support hocking ACC off. It’s another example of National’s quick-fix money-grab.

“ACC has shown itself to be a world leader in its field – the treatment of and compensation for accident victims. It is about making Kiwis lives better. It is not about profits for multinationals,” Chris Hipkins said.

ENDS

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