6 September 2006

Brownlee in the dark on National’s ACC deals

National Party Deputy Leader Gerry Brownlee seems unaware of his party's deal to withhold details of its ACC policy, says ACC Minister Ruth Dyson.

"Today in the House I tabled a document showing that National deliberately withheld details of its policy to privatise ACC following advice from the Insurance Council – a circular that Mr Brownlee did not seem to know existed, " says Ruth Dyson.

"Mr Brownlee was kept in the dark about the involvement of the Exclusive Brethren and now it seems he doesn't know about National's deals with the Insurance Council – is Mr Brownlee deliberately being sidelined by his own party?"

The circular, from the council’s chief executive Chris Ryan, says National's ACC reprivatisation policy is ‘a very positive announcement for the industry, particularly the scope of the competition across all accounts’.

It also says ‘the details of the policy have been deliberately kept out of the announcement after consultation with the Insurance Council’.

Ruth Dyson says the circular showed that National would take privatisation of ACC even further than in the 1990s, with plans to privatise all accounts except the non-earners.

“Under National, the employers, self-employed, motor vehicle and medical misadventure accounts would all be privatised. This might be good for insurance industry profits, but it is not good for New Zealanders.”

ENDS

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