KEY POINTS:
The National Party says it will aim to make workplaces safer while delivering certainty of coverage and more effective compensation under an improved ACC scheme if it wins the election.
Party leader John Key announced National's ACC policy today, saying it would investigate opening ACC's Work Account to competition but decisions would be made carefully and only after a full evaluation of the benefits to consumers.
Earlier this month the Government accused National of planning to privatise ACC after it was reported Australian insurers were anticipating opportunities to make a profit out of it.
ACC was opened to competition by the previous National government, and Labour re-nationalised it after winning the 1990 election.
Mr Key said today the experience of competition in the late 1990s had been healthy for ACC.
"Levy rates are now substantially lower as a result of that experience, and the ongoing prospect of competition," he said.
"Despite Labour's rhetoric, it has actually retained the ability for larger employers to opt out of the state monopoly and either self-insure or use a private insurer."
He gave an assurance that National supported a comprehensive, 24/7, no-fault insurance scheme but said it could be improved.
"Workplace accident figures are high by international standards," he said.
"OECD data to the end of 2003 showed New Zealand's non-fatal injury rate rising when everybody else's except Luxembourg were falling. ACC data shows the number of work-related injury claims increased each year from 2002 to 2005, only declining in 2006.
"Either way, we can do better."
Mr Key said incentives for employers to improve safety practices were poor on the existing scheme, and similar premiums were charged regardless of an employer's workplace accident record.
When accidents happened, incentives for quick, high-quality rehabilitation were weak and entitlements for injured people were not of high quality.
"National wants a more flexible scheme that rewards employers with good workplace safety records, penalises those with poor records, and encourages employers to buy more than the basic cover," he said.
"National supports the principle of competition and choice in the ACC Work Account, which covers employees and the self-employed at work."
Mr Key said the issues around competition in the Work Account were well known and understood, but the same could not be said for the other accounts.
"This is a highly complex sector," he said.
"New Zealanders are entitled to feel secure that the entitlements guaranteed by law will be delivered efficiently and reliably."
The main points of the policy are:
* investigate opening the Work Account to competition;
* conduct a full stock-take of the various components of the ACC scheme, evaluate progress to full funding, and identify areas of cross-subsidy or cost-shifting and underfunding of newly legislated entitlements; and
* investigate the introduction of an independent disputes tribunal to end ACC's dual role of judge and jury on disputed claims.
- NZPA
