From 1 April, the NZ ACC Work Account levy will drop from 95 cents per $100 of earnings to 90 cents – a 5 percent drop. However, ACC itself had recommended a 21 percent drop.
Labour’s Sue Moroney said it was not the first time the Government had rejected ACC’s recommended levies, including the 2013-2014 financial year.
ACC Minister Nikki Kaye maintained the Government has to take a range of factors into consideration. “You can take these accounts at a point in time but if you do that you end up in a position that we had, a $5 billion deficit in ACC, because you need to take a long-term view because of the significant shifts in the account.”
However, ACC’s chair Paula Rebstock hinted at further recommended reductions in ACC levies to come.
Really? Not if Nikki Kaye is still Minister.
How outrageous. The actual public servant in charge of the dept recommends a drop in rates and the Minister vetoes it? On what sounds like very insubstantial grounds. Remember National? They were the party that was going to cut business costs and red tape. Same old same old worthless socialist rhetoric.
TrueblueNZ 
Maybe your not aware of this, but ACC had a $24 billion surplus 2 years ago. And what do they do with their surpluses? Lend to the government. So don’t expect to see big cuts in ACC, until, they can pay back ACC the billions they’ve borrowed.
LikeLike
Wow, $24 billion is some surplus! If you’ve got a link to that info I’d appreciate it. It implies that ACC is being used to fund other policies which if it is indeed happening would have to be a gross abuse of govt. I guess what they say is its in an investment fund set up to cope with contingent liabilities but $24 billion is still a heck of a lot of surplus.
LikeLike
Red, I’ll have a look to see what I can find. But it was in the newspaper a couple of years ago, and it was meaning it in terms of accumulated surplus. So if they received $1 billion a year, and they only spend $500 million a year, slowly they would reach $24 billion.
LikeLike
Hi red, I’ve just found an article that explains they have 24 billion in reserves which is what I meant. I hope this link works. Otherwise I’ll just have to explain how to get the information.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid...
LikeLike
Sorry the old link was an error. If this next link doesn’t work just type in ACC surplus, and you will find an article about it.
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nzherald.co.nz%2Fbusiness%2Fnews%2Farticle.cfm%3Fc_id%3D3%26objectid%3D11133158&ei=sFYCVcVLyebwBYnYgMgJ&usg=AFQjCNGRssDa2Vu82qz4AZ3-fe1pGnA-bA&sig2=E-PGCDQT-aV2R4tQlP1mew
LikeLike
OK thanks Meatloaf.
LikeLike
Your welcome red, and by the way I’m the same meatloaf you know on kiwiblog.
LikeLike
Pingback: My Article Read (3-12-2015) (3-13-2015) | My Daily Musing