I can smell the Uranium from here – the obscenity of ACC owning private prison just got worse

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You might think that ACC owning 33% of Serco’s private prison at Wiri was obscene enough. That a Government agency would generate revenue directly from the incarceration of citizens is a recipe for disaster, especially as we near 10 000 NZers in prison for the first time in our history. To do it with a private corporation that has an appalling human rights record, runs brutal detention camps for the Australians  and has been corruptly caught out wrongfully invoicing other Governments makes this obscenity an abomination.

The icing on the cake was Serco having one of their prisons taken off them because of fight club fights, assaults and stand over tactics.

But it gets worse.

So much more worse…

ACC defends investing with Serco

ACC, which has a $33 billion investment fund to pay for the medical treatments it provides, invested in 2012 with Serco Group and two others to create Secure Future Wiri, which would build and run the prison, which is now know as South Auckland Correctional Facility.

This was despite Serco being on ACC’s investment exclusion list since May 2008 because of its involvement in nuclear arms.

Serco was involved in a joint venture with the British government to run some of its nuclear bases and ACC has a policy not to invest in companies with connections to the manufacturing of nuclear arms.

…laugh it up NZers, you’ve allowed a corrupt private corporation with appalling human rights to make money out of incarceration along with Government Departments and that corrupt corporation also make money out of nuclear weapons.

I can smell the Uranium from here.

New Zealanders, thanks to 30 years of neoliberalism, have lost any ideological compass. So when the Government suggests free market solutions in prisons, housing, education and welfare, the sleepy hobbits of NZ shrug and nod. The reality is these public services are so essential and so important to social justice and combating inequality that they can’t be left to a corporation whose interest is profit above any other value.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Only when we as NZers realise this, can we demand real change and policy that has a positive outcome rather than a damaged one.

 

26 COMMENTS

  1. Lets not forget 1998 when National allowed AON and Catalyst to manage ACC long term claimants files – which resulted in 14000 plus injured people being shafted onto WINZ – the interfered with the assessment process to make it happen. We know of 3 claimants who managed to get back on ACC and all three were given “hush” money – one claimant was given $1.7 million dollars plus what he was owed as in ERC and interest! AON and Catalyst need to be investigated. We are paying ACC levies only to be looked after by winz so paying ACC for what?

  2. ACC royally ripped a friend of mine off from receiving even close to what she should have. She did not get the support she needed, no where near.
    The horror stories involving ACC are massive and kept secret and not well publicized.
    They ripped me off from proper support after a horrific auto accident.
    I now regret having anything to do with them.
    They have a reputation for not settling properly with those in need.
    ACC also has a reputation for putting profits and CEO salaries before people.
    They are extremely stressful to deal with and not good at problem solving.

    So it is no surprise that they want to profit from prisons and continue the privatization nightmares. Privatization is not the solution and creates many more problems than most are aware of. The smell of greed is overwhelming at ACC.

      • I totally agree. Any takers for doing the research about how to start this inquiry process ? Tons Of NZ’ers, I am sure, would jump on board to help support and expose a very crooked and greedy organization. Sure they help a bit but when it comes to really being there and really listening to their clients, they fall very short.
        Again, greed can be smelled and witnessed and I feel it needs to be exposed and brought out into the open. To diminish pay outs and reduce proper compensation is their goal.

    • Yes agree ACC are ripping people of from there entitlements but NZers need to stop voting for this nasty Nats party. They are spending our taxes on investing in corporate companies while at them same time cutting and reducing our entitlements to social insurance. John Miller (ACC lawyer) has been fighting ACC for the working and poor people. Google John Miller and you will see he has up to 1000 cases on his books and much of this is kept quiet why? because our country is in such a mess under the incompetent govt we have.

    • Yes agree ACC are ripping people of from there entitlements but NZers need to stop voting for this nasty Nats party. They are spending our taxes on investing in corporate companies while at them same time cutting and reducing our entitlements to social insurance. John Miller (ACC lawyer) has been fighting ACC for the working and poor people. Google John Miller and you will see he has up to 1000 cases on his books and much of this is kept quiet why? because our country is in such a mess under the incompetent govt we have.

  3. Is that the same ACC that refused to compensate me for an upper back injury causing permanent neurological impairment to my left hand?
    All I wanted was some good quality Physio but was told that I had a ‘disease of the spine’ by one of their hench-Quack Dr’s in Dunedin. I was working on a feature film staring Margo Robbie, Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor but I had to ask to be released from set a week early because I couldn’t stand up and had to dope myself up to the gills on codeine just to drive my car.
    The dead faced little ACC scumbag in Dunedin lied to me, as did ACC’s Dr and was left to try and survive on the salary I earned from the film project. I existed on about $220.00 a week for nine months.
    I was told by two MRI specialists that the prolapsed disc was partly as a result of ‘ normal wear ‘ given my age and my previous work regime.
    ACC then sent me a demand for $550.00 ACC levies on that film salary which I refuse to pay to this day so they credit listed me.
    I, and my colleagues on that particular project, drew the Director here with our past experience, expertise and our work ethic. That film put hundreds of thousands of dollars directly into Christchurch and it’s surroundings and I get refused treatment for which I was eminently entitled because I was considered too old thus worn out for compensation.
    Therefore. Fuck ACC in all permutations except the good kind. A curse on the Minister and all sundry ACC employed fuckers who have, are doing, or are about to do to people in dire need that which was done to me.
    The soulless, greedy, crooked nest of ACC narcissists can roast in Hell and if it was revealed that ACC was also involved in child sex slave trafficking, P labs, live human organ theft or the real estate industry I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

    • They NEED to ban that word they use on anyone over 30. Degenerative! It has cost me I dunno how much, but they tell me that a back injury 25 years ago (I was 35) caused by a 4 wheel drive locking up all 4 wheels in the wet and pushing the boot lid of the car I was driving into the back of the front seats. (The Car was a Mitsi Lancer) Lower discs with fractures and hairline fractures in the neck as well, leaving me with continual pain and unable to stand for long periods of time and sitting also hurts like a Bitch. Is NOT Degenerative. Fuck the Tame Doctors they’d leave you to suffer. and now I live on Morphine Tramadol Codeine and other stuff (And home green to stop the sickness (when i can afford it)) Thanx ACC. Degenerative my Arse.

    • ACC favourite line under this Pnats govt is ‘your injury is degenerative’ they pay there specialist thousands of dollars to tell the courts our injuries are degenerative what a load of bullshert. So what are we paying levies and taxes for when we need help it isn’t there. This is what happens under a tory govt in fact if we let them in another term they will privatize ACC and anything else they can get their dirty little hands on

  4. Given the:
    Warner Bros deal
    That SERCO got the big payola to run our jails when clearly they had no idea what they were doing
    And after being found out badly at Mt Eden they still retain Wiri
    The SkyCity casino deal that was skin crawlingly dodgy to say the least, done over a piss up lunch and led by our PM no less
    And that is the bottom scraping standard set by our Prime Minister and our government then should anyone be surprised that government departments are doing immoral deals with SERCO?

    If Key could get away with doing coke deals with Mexican drug cartels he would, fuck it, money is money and it’s probably only the itsy bitsy little detail of it being utterly illegal and a major criminal offence that deters him, just!

  5. Labour /Greens NZ First need to all declare to “Re Nationalise” all these privatised/monetised these “essential ” services or more rot will destroy us all.

  6. Yes agree ACC are ripping people of from there entitlements but NZers need to stop voting for this nasty Nats party. They are spending our taxes on investing in corporate companies while at them same time cutting and reducing our entitlements to social insurance. John Miller (ACC lawyer) has been fighting ACC for the working and poor people. Google John Miller and you will see he has up to 1000 cases on his books and much of this is kept quiet why? because our country is in such a mess under the incompetent govt we have.

  7. Ironical that it was the Lange government which introduced extreme neo-liberalism to New Zealand in the first place

    • Gee Mr Pineapples that’s line is a bit worn out whose been running our country for the last 8yrs

  8. This country is stuffed! 🙁 decades of rotten management have finished it. So young people where else to go? The rest of the World is stuffed too. There’s no escape. Meaning the good times are well and really gone! 🙁

  9. If ACC has spare money, drop the premiums. If ACC has spare money, pay people what they are actually owed in payouts.

    National, ACT, United Future and the Maori Party are all responsible for this despicable mess and Despicable Key is the ringleader of this corruption of the state.

    • Your vehicle reggo got cheaper. Something about ‘ACC isn’t quite as broke as we thought. Aren’t we just the kindest, most generous government ever? Those Others would have ripped you off. The Tax and Spend lot. You know who they are. Remember us next year…’

      And the ‘normal wear and tear’ BS has been running since the days of Shipley, at least. WINZ was slightly more humane in those days, however. A smidgen, or less.

  10. If you think that’s bad, based on what happened in Ashburton with water theft from New Zealanders, watch the neoliberals institute water-tight [sic.] ways of stealing water from Kiwis by taking away democracy (like they did with Environment Canterbury).

    CCO’s are the next theft cab off the neoliberal ranks. It’ll make supercities look like a chimps’ tea party

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