Motorcycling and An Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)

You have a magic wand.

Tomorrow morning there is no ACC

The Work Account has been privatised.

The remaining accident cover ‘no fault scheme’ eg motorcyclist injuries, football/rugby injuries, cyclist injuries etc etc is held in abeyance for 5 years while a joint parliamentary committee is convened and a strategy put forward to replace ACC within three years and reviewed after a further two years.

At present ACC in its very basic format represents ‘salary protection’ albeit reduced, and ‘medical cover’.

Aside from at work related injuries, anything else is ‘on top of’ from a ‘benefits' perspective.

Has ACC over the years gone down a canyon and now needs to turn around and re-visit the map of original intent?

Tomorrow if somebody said to me, ‘I can give you salary protection and full medical insurance for $2 a day [that’s right $2 a day]’ Would you, reading this, take that offer….?

Somewhere along the line I think we are missing the big detail in the small picture. ACC provides something – provided by the people [through the Government of the day] for the people.

We are on a path, that respects the right to protest, but equally can be one step away from civil unrest and in the extreme ‘death’ and anarchy.

I believe that to have a state funded accident and compensation facility [I chose not to use the word ‘system’] in this country then we are a very very fortunate country.

How that facility is funded in concept may, have been initially, rational and sound, however over time society’s values change, and with it so does the original tenet.

If the central governing body, over many years ‘discovers’ that the original intent of such a facility is flawed because the ‘system’ got it wrong, then inevitably change will occur.

Change in society over the centuries witnesses, more often than not discontent, particularly the internal bickering that does arise, and on a larger global scale, wars across borders and oceans.

What’s this got to do with motorcycle insurance, probably absolutely nothing.

What’s this got to do with democracy, ‘one hell of a lot.’

The tentacles of government, and not necessarily our own home state government, reach out across borders and oceans – are there not longer term objectives of an internal or external ‘agency’? For example if ‘climate change’ flavour of the international month, was replaced, with for example, a world embargo on trade with China, or alternatively, if China of its own volition curbed its international trade, then what impact would that have on the overall world economy as we know it today.

Here in New Zealand, a country of less than 5 million people, we are robust in our debate about inequities, be it cultural, be it ‘commonly accepted by right’ to have an accident compensation philosophy. The people created it, the governments of the day were elected to ‘monitor’ it and now, for whatever reason, the way ahead is clouded. Is the cloud an internal inhibitor, or is it something that is occurring and originating off-shore?

What’s this got to do, in the long run, with motorcycles and the joy of riding, probably absolutely nothing.

Where do you want to be in five years time and how do you want to get there….some may say 'I wouldn’t have a clue', and if the milk in the fridge tomorrow for a cup of tea is sour, whose fault is that….

We are living in a microcosm on the international stage, there are many many good things that exist in this country, and as a country it is ‘youthful’.

I think that a clearer heading is required, that will steer the youthfulness away from rocks and danger.

ACC is but a thorn in the side of progress. Of itself, philosophically it is a nappy, in the real world it is a crutch. There are better ways of providing compensation, it is up to the people of the day, not yesterday, to create a system.
How that is done is a task entrusted to many governments of the day over many years.

In a country of less than 5 million, you can politicise all you want, but when it is time to deliver make sure the governments of the day, elected by the people, can deliver.

If you don't like the medicine prescribed, change your doctor. If you don't like the doctor, heal thy self.