Labour steadfastly opposes ACC privatisation

Labour steadfastly opposes National’s plan to privatise the ACC work account and will continue to strongly criticise Minister Nick Smith’s plan to work towards that goal by stealth, says Labour’s spokesperson for ACC Chris Hipkins.

“Since 2008 National has talked up a crisis within the ACC scheme in order to justify privatising it. ACC was actually in a much better shape in 2008 than it was when National last left office in 1999. Talk of a crisis is just nonsense,” Chris Hipkins said.

“Independent reviews have found time and time again that ACC is one of the cheapest accident compensation programmes in the world. National simply haven’t made the case that privatisation will lead to a better scheme. There is no evidence to suggest that the private insurance industry can deliver the same cover and entitlement at a lower cost.

“In fact, the opposite will be true. The only way the private insurance industry could profit from ACC is by either increasing costs or reducing entitlements. In other words, Kiwis will pay more to get less.

“What’s more, there are huge risks to privatisation. In the case of insurance provider failure, as we’ve seen in Christchurch following the recent earthquakes, the taxpayer would be left to pick up the tab.

“It’s ironic that Nick Smith praised ACC’s handling of the Christchurch earthquake this morning. His privatisation plans would have made his decision following the quake to extend ACC entitlement to the first week of injury, practically impossible.

“While there are certainly aspects of the current ACC scheme that can be improved, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. ACC is fundamentally a good scheme. National should leave it alone,” Chris Hipkins said.