Split ACC committee reports today

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - The parliamentary select committee report on the Government's bill to return workplace insurance to ACC's monopoly is expected today.

The sharply divided committee was locked in a closed meeting yesterday as members worked on their report.

According to the Insurance Council, a big majority of the 1050 written submissions were against the Government's plan to reverse the privatised workers' compensation market, which came into effect last year.

On a scoresheet of 168 oral submissions, the council found 108 were against, 25 were in favour and 35 were divided between retaining benefits regardless of whether state or privately provided and having no view for or against.

Eleven unions who addressed the committee formed the only group unanimously in favour of the bill and treatment providers were the only other group with more in favour than against.

The bill sets up a transitional period covering the year ending July 2001 in which ACC's workplace insurance will return to a state similar to that before the market was privatised last year.

Much of the detail has yet to be determined but the Government believes a simple return to the ACC of old is not good enough.

As the transitional bill comes into force, work will begin on a second bill, itself scheduled to come into force on April 1, 2001.

The second bill will tackle a host of issues including the introduction of lump-sum payments, what constitutes an accident, mental trauma and the impact of gravity - the latter being the subject of a contentious court ruling last year.

The transitional bill will bar private insurers from writing new insurance contracts after March 31 and will cancel those in force after June 30, from which date most insurance cover will be with a reconstituted ACC employers' account.

The bill also provides for the reintroduction of an accredited employers' programme, since that was done away with under the 1998 legislation that privatised the market.

But although that will enable some employers to self-insure and manage part of their injury risk, the Insurance Council noted that it was one of the issues of greatest concern to employers because, instead of detailing how the scheme would work, the bill just allowed for regulations to be made.

"The fear of submitters was that this could be done without consultation with any other parties, and there was a strong feeling that wide consultation was not only desirable but necessary to ensure that the scheme was appropriate to employers of all shapes and sizes," the council said.

ACC Minister Michael Cullen has already berated the Insurance Council for what he said was its unwillingness at the select committee hearings to go beyond blanket opposition to renationalisation and address such issues as the accredited employers' scheme.

In spite of its simple aim of returning workers' compensation to ACC, the transitional bill will also recognise concerns raised by the self-employed and farmers, with extra provisions enabling them to insure for a guaranteed level of income, as opposed to one based on the previous year's tax return.

Farmers will also be able to cover the cost of employing alternative labour while they are injured.