ACC Hike In Charges Draconian And Unjustified - Peters

New Zealand First Leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters today labeled the increases in ACC levies for self-employed and motorcyclists, unjustified and draconian.

“There is no fairness in these increases and the Minister’s actions merely represents her resolve to take the path of least resistance to raise some extra cash for spending on useless politically correct programmes such as a Maori television channel,” said Mr Peters.

“ACC, when this Government took it back under its wing under the banner of the socialization of State assets, promised a better service, for less cost. Each of these commitments has long since been abandoned for political expediency and the need to raise cash for a number of wasteful ideological pursuits,“ he said.

“Small business owners are being seriously hurt by the demands of these savage ACC increases and in addition, the short time being given to business owners to front up with their hard earned cash to meet these demands is placing many of them in financial peril.
This Government is showing little understanding or sympathy for small business owners and the demands placed upon them to meet this latest burden may prove to be just too great for a number of them and the prospect of registering as an artist and receiving unemployment benefits will become sorely tempting,” Mr Peters predicted.

“In a similar vein, the huge increase to the ACC component of vehicle licensing costs for motorcyclists is further evidence of an ineffective Minister taking the path of least resistance just to generate a bit of cash. This is the very same proposal that the National Party wanted to put into place when New Zealand First was in coalition with them in 1997. It was to be a cash grab then, and the rationale has not changed one tiny bit,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

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