No guarantees on ACC cost blow-out

New provisions for ACC replacing medical misadventure appear to have no accurate costings or cost containment provisions, says National's ACC spokesman Dr Paul Hutchison.

"ACC Minister Ruth Dyson confirmed today that she could give 'no guarantee' over any possible blowouts to the estimated cost increase of $8.69 million per year.

"Taxpayers will be left to wait and watch for ACC levies to rise, as so often happens under this Labour Government.

"The scope for claims in the new scheme is very wide and could include a huge range of 'treatment injuries'.

"The Government should put in place clear guidelines as to what could be claimed for, and cost containment mechanisms from the beginning of the new scheme.

"I predict the new scheme will cost much more than the Government has estimated," said Dr Hutchison.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>