"Motorists in New Zealand have not forgotten that they already paying $50 more for their ACC levy because of Mr McCully's plan to privatise another ACC account," Labour ACC spokesperson Ruth Dyson said today.

"And National's policy launch today sends a very strong message that all accounts are up for privatisation in the future," Ms Dyson said.

"Mr McCully is still desperately trying to persuade New Zealanders that his so called reforms in ACC are working. But for many small businesses, the whole process has been a nightmare.

"Private insurance companies are using the same failed technique that ACC used of experience rating or burn clauses to promote safety. This method has not worked under ACC and it is not working now. Real incentives for injury prevention - combined with a sound process of education of the workforce and employers - will get accident numbers down. That's exactly what Labour's policy will deliver.

"While totally bereft of any new initiatives, Mr McCully forgets that his Government has had 9 years to promote injury prevention - and has done nothing. To claim support for the Woodhouse principles while pledging to privatise the visionary scheme developed by Sir Owen Woodhouse, is just insulting.

"We all agree about the problems that have surrounded ACC - particularly since the disastrous reforms that Bill Birch introduced in 1992. But Labour wants to rebuild the scheme and learn from the mistakes of the past. Mr McCully is determined to remain stuck in his ideological timewarp and just privatise more.

"The $50 increase in ACC costs would seem like a drop in the bucket to the increased costs that motorists would face under the next round. Mr McCully may have a short term memory loss, but the rest of the country does not," Ruth Dyson concluded.

© 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>>