Nationals ideological ACC stance flies in the face of evidence

“National’s desire to reward the Australian insurance industry with access to New Zealand worker compensation has clouded their policy release on ACC, which flies in the face of available evidence on the scheme,” CTU president Helen Kelly said today.

“National appear to have ignored the detailed report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which noted the firm’s “moderately strong view that a government monopoly is the best observable mechanism for implementing the ACC employers account.”

“Kiwi workers pay much less for ACC. In Australia, workers pay on average $2 in every $100 towards their worker compensation scheme, but in New Zealand under ACC it is 78 cents per $100.”

“And workers are back on the job earning a full wage quicker – ACC has 88% of claimants returning to work within six months, outperforming both the Australian average (85%) and all three comparable state monopoly schemes of NSW (86%), Victoria (85%) and South Australia (77%).”

“And a few facts please - Statistics NZ report that between 2002 and 2005 there was a 6 per cent decrease in the rate of claims (ratio of claims per workers) over the four years.”

“There is already plenty of evidence that says ACC is one of the best schemes in the world. National will ignore this and remove the right of workers to continue to access this brilliant scheme,” Helen Kelly said.

Ends. For more on ACC from the CTU, click here: http://union.org.nz/taxonomy/term/14