The vice president of a Tauranga motorcycle association says motorcyclists are considering a protest in the city to express their outrage over the proposed ACC levy increases.
Max Neal, vice president of Tauranga's Ulysses Club motorbike association, says the proposed increases are an absolute farce.
Max Neal, vice president of Tauranga's Ulysses Club motorbike association, describes the proposed rise of ACC levies as a farce. Picture by Tracy Hardy.
The increases for motorcyclists were part of a raft of changes announced by ACC Minister Nick Smith on Wednesday.
Owners of petrol powered motorcycles currently pay $252.69 a year in ACC levies and moped owners pay $58.97.
Under the proposed increases, motorcycles under 125cc will increase to $257.69, 126cc – 600cc powered motorcycles will rise to $511.43 and motorcycles over 601cc will jump to $745.77.
Moped owners will pay $198.61 extra for annual ACC levies.
Max says his email inbox has been flooded with emails from local motorcyclists angered about the proposed rises and he has been forced to turn his mobile phone off because of the number of calls he is receiving.
'People are absolutely shocked. ACC has been running at a loss for donkeys of years but penalising ‘Jo Blogs' on the street is not going to fix the problem,” says Max.
He is flying to Wellington on Friday to attend the Ulysses Club national meeting, where the idea of a national protest will be explored.
The protest could be modelled on the protest carried out by truck drivers last year over the proposed rise in road user charges, says Max.
Max owns a 1500cc Kawasaki Drifter motorcycle and says his ACC levies will rise by $493.08 under the proposed changes.
'It's taking the fun out of motorcycling. I've been a member of the Ulysses Club for 20 years and it's just going to take the edge off riding.
Every time there's a problem, politicians are always grabbing money out of the air to try and solve it,” says Max.
He says the members of the national Ulysses Club, which is based in 28 centres across New Zealand, will debate the rises this weekend and a decision on a possible protest finalised.
1 comment
You asked for it - now you are getting it! Stop complaining
Posted on 15-10-2009 14:06 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
This is exactly what happens when you insist on voting for governments who tell you they intend to interfere in your life, but you continue to vote them into power, giving them your permission to do it to you They tell you they are going to bend you over the kitchen table and you say - ooo yes please. A government big enough to give you everything you WANT is big enough to TAKE everything you have! Here is MY Letter to ACC: I hereby cancel my insurance with your organisation. I no longer have a need for your insurance as the cost versus service ratio is no longer acceptable to me. No more payments are forthcoming after October 2009 **** Bernard Darnton wrote this piece about ACC several days ago, assuming that Key s latest changes wouldn t do much to fix anything. No editing was required. ACC is widely admired overseas, we re told by its cheerleaders. Every other country in the world has been too awed by the scheme s brilliance to copy it. When Libertarianz puts together its alternative budget each year the plan s always the same: slap everything on Trade Me. Last time, when we tried to work out what the Buy Now price for ACC would be, we ran into a problem. One dollar reserve was a massive over-valuation. We re not talking about a Kiwirail-sized problem here; at least the track has some scrap value. ACC is more of a breach-of-the-Companies-Act trading-while-insolvent type of problem. If a company in the real world had finances like ACC s the liquidators would be brought in. Anyone mad enough to bid on our auction would have immediately been marched in front of a judge. As well as failing the insolvency test, ACC s hypothetical (and presumably insane) private owners would be in trouble for their other business practices. Invoicing you for services you didn t ask for pro forma invoicing is a breach of the Fair Trading Act. If an insurance company sends you a pro forma invoice, you should ask for proof that the deal was agreed to. No proof, no payment is the advice from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Scamwatch website. As for ACC s demands that we buy insurance for things that have already happened, Consumer Affairs has no advice presumably because no private sector criminal has ever thought he could get away with such a scheme. Of course, ACC isn t an insurance company; it s yet another welfare agency. If it was an insurance company it would offer me a lower premium if I took on a larger excess. I might get a no claims discount. It could offer me exclusions for things I didn t want to insure for example, self-harm. I m pretty sure I don t need to insure against deliberately slicing myself with a razor. First, I m not an idiot teenager. Second, if I m desperate for attention I just knock together a scantly researched and inflammatory blog post. Over the last few years, ACC has morphed into the Accident, Bad Luck, Stupidity, and Feeling Sad Compensation Corporation. Add to that the boo
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