Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

We are concerned with the National Party‟s moves towards a more insurance-based
approach as this will leave a great deal of room for insurers to provide less than the required
resources to fully rehabilitate a worker while technically and legally satisfying their written
contracts.
Labour will move away from the insurance-based approach for ACC and focus more
on rehabilitation.
Labour will ensure that workers will return to full-time work when they are fully
rehabilitated.
We believe that an injured person should be deemed vocationally independent when they
are physically able to work 35 hours per week and will make sure that their pre-injury
earnings are taken into account.
Levies
The ACC scheme is cost effective and relatively cheap. The New Zealand ACC scheme is
unique; it is a state monopoly underwritten by the Government. It has efficiency of scale and
power in the market. It can and does negotiate nationally with treatment providers, hospitals
and ambulance services.
Labour will review the level of funding of ACC to ensure that the ACC scheme will
meet the real costs of claimant‟s entitlements to treatment, and rehabilitation, and the
costs of injury prevention.
The National Party introduced “experience rating”, providing discounts for employers who
have little or no workplace injury claims. Evidence demonstrates that experience rating
creates an incentive for employers to reduce claims and claims costs by not offering
employees cover and all the entitlements that they should legally be able to access.
Labour will reverse the introduction of experience rating into the ACC scheme to
ensure that claimants are provided with entitlement and rehabilitation to the
maximum extent practicable, and will consider alternative means of incentivising and
encouraging good health and safety measures.
Labour will ensure that the Department of Labour is effectively funded to carry out its
role to “Promote and Support Safe and Healthy People and Workplaces” through “the
provision of information, education, and support for workplaces regarding effective
workplace health and safety practice, and enforcement action to promote compliance
with the HSE Act”.
Over the last couple of years the ACC levies for the Motor Vehicle Account have increased
substantially. At present the bulk of vehicle registration costs relates to ACC levies.
Motorcyclists have been particularly penalised by ACC levy increases.
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