To Whom it may Concern.
Re ACC Motorcycle Levies.
I am writing to express my disgust at the proposed rises in the ACC levies for motorcycles.
From the New Zealand Herald 9th October.
“The father of New Zealand's accident compensation scheme, Sir Owen Woodhouse, says changes announced last week are "uncaring and predatory".
Sir Owen, 93, says proposals to double and treble levies on heavy motorbikes and mopeds, breach the principles of the scheme he authored as head of a royal commission in 1967.
The scheme, implemented in 1974, was the first comprehensive "no-fault" accident compensation scheme introduced in any country using the British legal system, and ended costly legal battles to force employers to pay compensation for work injuries. Sir Owen said it cut administrative costs from about 30 per cent in private insurance schemes to 10 per cent.
Its five principles were community responsibility for accidents and supporting accident victims, comprehensive entitlement regardless of what caused the accident, complete rehabilitation, compensation for the whole period of incapacity at 80 per cent of previous earnings, and administrative efficiency.“
So what is happening?????
There appears to be a lot of misinformation that has been put out by Dr Smith and Mr Judge in regards to the figures around motorcycle accident figures and short fall of ACC funding.
In the New Zealand Herald on the 15th October it is quoted “ACC chairman John Judge yesterday said each car driver subsidised motorcycle and moped riders by $77 a year.” Also quoted from the New Zealand Herald is “However, ACC said that in 2008/09 it paid more than $62 million for accidents involving motorcycles. It collected $12.3m in levies from motorcyclists in the same period.”
In the year 2008 there were 55,180 motorcycles registered (including under 60cc) and 2,287,697 cars registered. (figures from NZ Transport Agency .
If you take the 2,287,697 motor cars registered and multiply that by the $77.00 that Mr. Judge claims they are subsiding motor cycles you will get a total of $176,152,669
From the same New Zealand Herald article “However, ACC said that in 2008/09 it paid more than $62 million for accidents involving motorcycles. It collected $12.3m in levies from motorcyclists in the same period.” Is this saying that there is a short fall of $49.7 million???. If the motorcars are subsiding motorcyclists by $77 then WHERE IS THE BALANCE GOING??????
$176,152,669
minus $49,700,00
$126,452,669
That is $126,452,669 of ACC levies that motorcar owners are paying and what for?
Figures from Ministry of Transport show the following
Multi vehicle, no rider fault identified 39%
Single vehicle, no rider fault identified 3%
Single vehicle, rider at fault 26%
Multi vehicle, primary responsibility 25%
Multi vehicle, partial responsibility 7%
On the front of the ACC website there is a statement “The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provides comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand.”
So why is the ACC trying to apportion blame amongst road users.
Another figure to look at is the single vehicle, rider at fault. Here is a open and wide ranging argument. Having ridden many of New Zealand’s sealed roads over the past years I have become very wary of the condition of New Zealand’s Roads. The condition of the roading in New Zealand is that of a third world standard. Yes there are a number of motorcyclists out there who travel at excess speeds and lose control but I also think that the roads need to be taken into account.
When a traffic crash report is done by the Police Officer at the scene there is a part of the report that covers road conditions and other factors. Take a look at these. I am willing to take anyone out for a ride on my motorcycle or even in a car and point out the factors of our roads that contribute to motorcycle accidents.
From this I find that in 39% of multi vehicle accidents there was no fault of the motorcyclist. If the ACC want to start attributing the blame on motorcyclist they should start looking more into the causes of motorcyclist accidents and charge according to cause. If you were to take the present ACC levies portion of motorcycle registration and work out 39% of, you would get $111.39. So the motor cars are not paying enough toward their share of motorcycle accidents caused by them.
I own and motorcar and a motorcycle and yet pay ACC levies on both vehicles and on the fuel I use, so in fact I am being TAXED three times for the same cover???? I am told that when I am in my car someone else can ride my motorcycle, No way would my insurance company allow that.
If ACC is to be a user pays system as it should be then the ACC levies needs to be removed from vehicle registration and put fully on the sale of petrol. Not on driver licensing or registration.
As for putting the ACC levies in a tiered system on the cc rating of motorcycles, why? I own a Harley Davidson Motorcycle that has a cc rating of 1583cc. You can buy a sports motorcycle that nearly one third of the capacity (600cc) and has the capability of twice the power output and twice the speed of my Harley Davidson.
So I have the following questions that I would like answered:
Thank You
Terence James