‘Less than adequate’ – Govt proposes ACC reform
The Government is proposing changes to a controversial Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) scheme in a move that could affect hundreds of thousands of New Zealand workers.
ACC Minister Carmel Sepuloni wants to introduce new rules for ACC’s Accredited Employers Programme, which is used by more than 100 major companies across the country. The changes will affect 25% of the New Zealand workforce.
Under the scheme, employers are given a discount on their levies if they promise to care for workers hurt on the job. They are bestowed with powers normally reserved for the Government and trusted to fund the rehabilitation and compensation of injured staff.
The disgusting right myth spread by right wing liars is that NZ is an over taxed, over regulated economy when that is total bullshit!
In a recent column, Max Rashbrooke highlighted the horror of NZs under regulated market…
The bad news is that, to investigate 200,000-300,000 terrible rentals, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has employed a frontline inspectorate numbering … 37. Each inspector will have to check somewhere between 5000 and 8000 rentals.
…there is only 37 inspectors of rental properties for 300 000 terrible rentals?
Similar poorly funded regulation is apparent in the 82 labour inspectorates who are supposed to police hundreds of thousands of migrant worker exploitations!
Time and time and time again in New Zealand we see an old boy matrix of vested interests who occupy market dominance and act like a monopoly, duopoly or oligopoly raking in vast wealth while leaving the local small and medium sized operators outside the cosy relationships!
Up and down NZ, small and medium enterprises are unable to compete because of the lack of basic regulation in the market!
We’ve seen it with the Supermarket duopoly, the medicinal cannabis oligopoly, the Gib Board monopoly – each time under regulated and poorly regulated capitalism continues to screw over us the consumers at a time of a cost of living crisis!
Frustration inside the drainage industry has reached boiling point recently with anti competitive practices and crony capitalism that would make your average South American Drug Cartels blush.
We are not an over taxed, over regulated economy!
Our top tax rate is the 39th highest in the world behind all the Scandinavian countries plus Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and South Africa!
Australia’s top tax rate is 47cents!
Our GST rate doesn’t even get us into the top 50 and our corporate tax rate is 40th while Government spending against GDP ranks 56th!
And we are voted easiest to do business by the World Bank!
Carmel Sepoloni, who is easily the worst insider in Cabinet, is still allowing the crony capitalism of these pricks who through their vast wealth and power are able to bypass ACC rules to shit all over workers who are hurt on the job.
I’m not looking for socialism here folks, just basic garden variety regulated capitalism!
The fact that these rich companies can bypass the regulations because of their power, and then when they damage workers don’t have to look after them is a fucking outrage!
The scheme is used by some of the country’s most recognisable businesses and entities, including Police, Air New Zealand, Fonterra, Fletcher Building, Foodstuffs and the Ports of Auckland, as well as multiple universities, banks and councils.
1News highlighted the programme earlier this year as part of an investigation intoTalley’s Group, one of the country’s biggest employers using the programme.
The story revealed an ACC monitoring report in February 2020 found “consistently inaccurate” payments by the Talley’s Group to workers hurt at its meatworks.
So a special scheme that allows the powerful and wealthy to get away with damaging their workers and not looking after them?
How charming.
This country is a network of old boy nods and winks that produce monopolies, duopolies and oligopolies.
The Governments responsibility to Capitalism is to regulate it so that consumers have actual choice, in NZ we pretend to be regulated when it reality the Government allow the big players to write the rules while we suffer…
But two experienced lawyers were sceptical, saying the programme still gives too much power to private companies.
ACC lawyer Peter Sara has helped many workers challenge accredited employers. He described the AEP as an “experiment which has failed”.
“It continues to fail, but if there is some strong commitment to continue with this programme then, no, I don’t think that these reforms go anywhere near far enough in terms [of] actual reform,” he said.
“I think the Minister’s statements are lofty aspirations, but I suppose the cynic in me, after all these years thinks, well, is that really going to happen?”
Sara said there was still a clear “conflict of interest” for employers.
“They’re wearing two hats – they’re wearing the hat of an employer and they’re wearing the hat of an ACC provider – and the two are not good bedfellows, they just don’t work together,” he said.
…right wing lies and mythology dictate the narrative and gloss over the total failure by Government to regulate capitalism.
This country is a fucking joke.
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Carmel is out of her depth ….diversity is not always an strength…please listen Labour
That just outs you as a RACIST! Nathan(sarc)
Hate speech Shona, hate speech. You’d better hope that Joanna Kidman doesn’t find out about you; change your cat’s name pronto and if you’ve not got one get one and change it’s name as a mark of something, ok ? Stop wearing designer clothing which triggers jealousy from lumpies even if you get it from the Sallies, and if you grow your own vegetables, which I think that you so, stop that too as it discredits those who don’t. You’re living dangerously in today’s political climate, and you may have to consider going into hiding like Jason Ede and that woman who got the drinking age lowered. Kia kaha.
Shona – How???
Nathan, dear, you’re a male. Shona said,”Racist”. Shona’s a femme, you’re not, therefore you are automatically guilty. Just be grateful that Shona didn’t say, “ Rapist, or kiddy-fiddler, or paid-up Green.” I’d still think about going into hiding anyway, along with Shona, Jason Eade, and maybe Howard Broad if we’re we’re getting retrospective, plus the woman who lowered the drinking age, and take some decent ear plugs or keep loudly singing ‘Queen’ songs to stop yourself going slightly mad the way that so many of these dastardly pollies seem to be. Good luck.
Not possible. They have their lugholes intact so they can hear – but they’ve yet to learn the art of listening (in that space, going forward, rhubarb rhubarb). It’ll take a while yet, and probably only after they suffer a crushing defeat – after which there’ll be an endless post mortem with promises of various learnings learned and change.
I suspect it’s really now too late for Labour to redeem itself as much as I live in hopey hopey changey changey stuff. Some of them appear to be doing their best (such as Michael Wood) but he’s uphill.shit.pushing).
Getting rid of the Sepuloni could be a good start – the second biggest bullshit artist after Fa aaa fffffFoi, but we’ll see. Time is running out.
How many more far right economic policies do this labour government have to produce till people realize they are same as the last lot, extremely anti worker assholes?
They are just liberals, right wing liberals. Who don’t really care about anyone, but will react if their image will be tainted.
It’s like the early 1900’s all over again, a liberal party moving further and further to the right economically.
Whilst working people are about to get right royally screwed over
I got to the point where i was asking myself who exactly Labour represents now, they used to be able to flitter around social policy and give us a pittance but now they’re just hard core business orientated. Its like having National but wearing red.
Coming from a working class left leaning background I dont really see any viable options to give a vote to anymore so I think I will stop bothering eh!
Try the Māori Party, more working class folk just got elected to councils all across the country than in the last 40 years via them.
Just a thought.
How very true Martyn. This country needs a good shaking, and the weak, right leaning labour goons aren’t the ones to do it for us. Mind you, neither are Luxon and his bunch.
Let’s hope the Greens, TPM and TOP are busy getting their bottom lines together now – lines they will not cross when it comes to coalition negotiations. And that they are letting Labour know through back channels.
It’s probable that we’re going to have to face 3-6 years of the gNActoids as things stand come ’23 but it’s probably the only way Labour will get the message.
There’s another shocker about to break (comes as no surprise to me) with that bugger’s muddle called MBIE. That’s the Ministry with under-resourced worker bees at the coalface and more senior PMC empire builders – including ex-police who’ve come to realise their careers weren’t going to go any further if they stayed put. Unfortunately there are Labour Ministers that think the sun shines out of its arse.
enjoy our insights Tim , think I have said that before. We need as many small parties as possible in parliament next year. it is our only hope! The Gnatz cannot be allowed to rule unchallenged.
Shona and Tim. Thank you. I had already dumped Labour, but their disgraceful dumping of the Commissioner for Children, would have finished me with them anyway. It’s a monstrous betrayal of so many powerless young ones.
As a long- term Green supporter, I dumped them after Davidson’s dreadful ignorant Pakeha-blaming to shell-shocked grieving Muslims in the wake of the awful Christchurch murders. I happen to think Davidson possibly the most racist politician in Parliament, dunno. TOP are looking a realistic alternative and have always had high calibre candidates, the one I knew well is good. I doubt I could ever vote National even if they managed to scrape up better people, but Labour, Green and the Nats are all moral cripples. Cheers.
Indeed @SW. As I’v mentioned before – I lost count of the number of FGC’s I’ve attended under CYFS and then OT, and watched 3 of 4 siblings lives ruined as a result of the shite. Its probably the Children’s Commissioner that had a lot to do with the 4th being allowed to make good with a bright future ahead.
But then on top of that, various agencies under the aegis of MoBIE have seen either their lives, or those of their families becoming impoverished and financially set back years – losing land and whatever wealth they once had.
And then on top of that, all the other failed promises we’ve witnessed that many in here regularly discuss. There’s now no way I can party vote Labour even though I know there are 1 or 2 MPs/Munsters that are doing their best to return Labour to its rootings. Labour needs a lobotomy, or shock treatment at least.
OnceWasTim You carry a lot of memories which can burden, and ironically, I think the persons responsible have to be psychopaths to continue repeating damaging patterns, unburdened, and be well paid for doing so. The shafting of the Children’s Commissioner is such a public statement of, at the very least, ineptitude, that the whole Labour Party should be tossed in the loch for it. I think, and hope that all other parties are opposed to this, and that offers a glimmer of hope about human decency in an increasingly mad world. Kia kaha.
And here we thought the greens would have a backbone when it came to cannabis and got royally walked over to appease Winston fucking Peters who said no to any social policy Labour tried to get across the line. This is using MMP against us.
Minor parties should not be telling Labour their priorities – it only gives Labour pre-emption to undermine them.
Thanks for the Tax table data Bomber.
I remember quoting similar stats to anyone who would listen when campaigning for the Alliance.
I think the problem is we’re a soft target. If we were more staunch and could kick arse’s we’d have less trouble.
Here’s what SHOULD happen. Farmers, you know those ones right? They make the stuff to export that not only we can eat and wear but it’s the stuff that returns foreign money to us so as we can buy stuff and things made overseas.
Then. The farmers SHOULD go to bed with The Green party and let nature take its course. And pretty soon, after love and kisses and misty eyed promises we’d have a population of lovely little Green Woolly babies that we could sell and eat.
Then. What SHOULD happen, is that our farmers, now farming sustainably and as a consequence, more profitably would pop and E, smoke a dubie and party hard with their city friends because they’re our farmers down stream service industry providers. NOT the w-banks. NOT flaky, privateer investment companies, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, marketing professionals and sundry other money fetishist narcissistic sociopaths wedged in bed with us, telling us how to do our fucking business.
The shady BS dished up by Talley’s in the South Island shows some employers can’t be trusted in this area. I can’t understand why they need a discount (handout). Agree with Martyn.
It isnt joe bloggs employee giving party donations to all these politicians, its those who want to retain status quo or want something to benefit themselves.
Our corrupt political system created this mess.
Im done voting, there isnt a point anymore, its not going to change anything. We elect them for the slogans they give us but it seems then they do whatever the hell they want and you end up with policy that doesnt help you at all. They spend forever giving even the basic levels of anything social but are quick as enabling some business sector to benefit more.
Carmel for PM.
Kelvin as Ambassador to Nth Korea, Marama Minister of Race Relations, James Minister of Racing and Walking, Seymour Minister of Hugging falling leaves, fallen women, and fleeing cars. That’ll do it.