Secret deal over ACC claimed

Labour has thrust its "hidden agenda" claims back into the election limelight by producing an Insurance Council memo that says National deliberately withheld the detail of its policy to revamp ACC.

The revelation was being flatly denied by National last night.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told the Herald the memo, leaked to Labour, showed National appeared to have a secret agreement with the insurance industry to withhold details of the policy to privatise ACC.

Written to insurance company bosses by council chief executive Chris Ryan last Thursday when National released its ACC policy, the memo says: "The details of the policy have been deliberately kept out of the announcement after consultation with the Insurance Council."

National's announcement would be "very positive for the industry, particularly the scope of the competition across all accounts". It also noted NZ First was "onside" with the policy.

The policy throws ACC open to competition across all its accounts, except the non-earner account.

Helen Clark challenged National to reveal details of the policy it was withholding, saying the real plan could be total privatisation of everything except the non-earner account.

"New Zealanders need to be told what the insurance industry stands to gain and what ordinary Kiwis stand to lose as a result of this collusion between National and the Insurance Council."

She also asked how much funding had come to National in return for putting $2 billion-worth of ACC levies up for grabs.

Labour has hammered the theme that National leader Don Brash has a hidden agenda, and the memo follows leaked emails in Sunday papers showing right-wing luminaries gave him advice before and after toppling Bill English.

But National ACC spokeswoman Katherine Rich said Mr Ryan was wrong to say details of the policy had been deliberately kept out of the announcement and she denied there was an agreement with the council to keep details secret.

A spokesman for Dr Brash also said Mr Ryan was wrong.

However, Mr Ryan told the Herald his understanding was that the details were deliberately removed as they would have to be resolved with any coalition partner.

Asked what had been removed, he replied: "My understanding would be, how far the privatisation would go, whether you would have an independent disputes tribunal, what role the ACC would take, whether there would be a Crown entity player like last time ... what your timeframe would be".

Asked if NZ First supported National's policy, Mr Ryan replied: "Ask them ... but from my perspective, yes they are supporting it".

Mr Peters last night said he did not know why Mr Ryan would say NZ First was "onside" as he had not discussed the issue with him.

Helen Clark said opening up ACC to competition might be good for insurance industry profits but it was not good for New Zealanders.

Insurance umbrella

The Insurance Council is an industry body representing fire and general insurers.

It comprises 20 members, who write about 95 per cent of New Zealand's general insurance business.