3rd July 2008

With the National Party so far ahead in the polls it seems inevitable that nothing short of a miracle will prevent a change of government in November.

The worry is that many of the usual suspects from the last term of National are still lurking in the background and the agenda of privatisation is still high in their ambitions given that big business and corporations are generally backers of the party. John Key has time after time reiterated that National won't sell off any state assets in their first term, but what after that?

In the absence of any released policy it has been left for either the Labour Party to dig for dirt or National supporters to let the cat out of the bag. The latest to surface is allowing Insurance companies to compete with ACC. This was first introduced in 1999 by National, but they were turfed out of office shortly after and it was knocked on the head by Labour. Merrill Lynch, sensing that their ex star employee is about to take the reins of the country has in one of their newsletters revealed that National has ACC in their sights once again and are rubbing their hands at the prospect of getting hold of some of the billions of dollars that go through the ACC coffers. This news caught John Key by the short and curlies, but true to form the stock line was trotted out that they weren't about to sell off ACC.

Say what you like about ACC, they can be frustrating to deal with and could do with the broom sweeping out the many inefficiencies that plague public corporations, but on the whole they do a good job. I believe a recent report put them at the top of the heap when compared to most other countries both in cost and service. The justification for allowing competition is on cost supposedly making it cheaper. It probably will for the multi-billion dollar corporations who have the clout to screw the insurance companies for lower premiums which in turn they will make up by charging higher premiums for the rest of the pecking order. Insurance companies are in business for one purpose, to make a profit and you can be sure that the interests of rehabilitation and injury prevention of their clients will last on their list of priorities.

I'm fed up with the nanny state that Labour has thrust upon us over the last 9 years and really want to vote for National. I probably won't if this is what we have in store. Can you trust the buggers? I have grave doubts!

TC