Dr Paul Hutchison
National Party ACC Spokesman

26 October 2006

ACC fails in key areas

ACC’s Annual Report, released late yesterday, is an indictment on the Labour Government’s monopoly model as both injury claims and costs continue to grow, says National’s ACC spokesman, Dr Paul Hutchison.

“Despite one of ACC’s core business objectives being ‘reducing the incidence, severity and cost of injuries and occupational disease’, new claims increased by more than 5% from 2004/05,” says Dr Hutchison.

“This is significantly more than the increase in population and vehicle usage.

“Weekly compensation claims increased by more than 6% from the previous year.

“The results are bad. Despite the Government bragging about spending more money on accident prevention, an increase in weekly compensation claims reflects an increase in moderate and serious injuries – the opposite of what Labour predicted.

“And things are even worse with Labour’s rehabilitation record. The report says that ‘early and effective rehabilitation has always been core business of ACC’. But the median weekly compensation days paid was 30 days, instead of the target of 25 days.

“This is in stark contrast to what is achieved by third-party administrators working in the private sector, who achieve results 200% better at 25% of the cost that ACC achieves.

“The report also notes that claims costs have increased by 10.4% over the previous year and net liabilities have increased since 2002.

“This report highlights Labour’s dismal record of failing to achieve value for money, efficient delivery and effective prevention.

“If choice and competition were introduced, workers would be served much better by a focus on early case management, best practice rehabilitation and earlier return to work.”

ENDS

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