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The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is New Zealand’s no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand.
If some one hurts you (or you hurt yourself), you’re entitled to compensation.
Open to immense abuse, of course – I trapped a nerve in my back when I was back on holiday once and the doctor put it down as an “ACC”.
“Cheaper for you that way” he said, even though I had a travel insurance policy that covered it. I think I even got 150 Paracetamols included….
Given that it’s a bloody expensive scheme, the money has to come from somewhere.
It’s deducted from your salary with your tax if you’re an employee, you’re billed directly if you’re self-employed and if you drive a car, part of your registration fee goes into the ACC fund.
Which is fair enough – if you drive a car, you carry a greater risk of injury.
The new ACC Minister, Dr Nick Smith, wants to tweak the model a bit further.
If you’re not driving a vehicle that has a 5-star safety rating (side airbags and electronic stability control being prerequisites i.e a new car), you’ll pay a higher registration fee.
This is a bit like trying to change a spark plug through the exhaust pipe, Nick.
Having higher efficiency airbags will certainly contribute to injury prevention.
Prerequisite: having an accident.
The prime cause of accidents (which result in the injuries that ACC addresses) is still going to be the driver:car:(drink) combination.
Now, insurance companies tend to be pretty good at assessing risk.
So while they’re whacking the 20 year old driver of a (new-ish) tuned-to-within-inches-of-its life Honda Civic for an insurance premium that reflects the (not inconsiderable) risk of his/her wrapping themself around a tree or taking out a pedestrian/cyclist/other driver, why not surcharge the premium for ACC purposes and have the insurance companies pay it directly into the fund?
By all means charge me the 60 year old driver of a 1996 Honda CRV a higher ACC component of the registration fee for the higher risk of injuries by NOT having side airbags, but AT LEAST factor the lower risk of having an accident in the first place into the equation and the resulting tendential irrelevance of having (or not having) side airbags.
Back to the drawing board, Nick…
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It actually believe it’s frequently referred to as “Supply and Demand”…
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“Stop looking sad. You’ll have plenty of time to be sad later! I’m fine”
and we’d all cheer up and laugh and you’d say “We’ll be seeing each other again, anyway”
I have a friend who’s a nuclear physicist.
Just the nicest guy.
But I sometimes come away from his place and think (as far as my cranial constraints allow, that is..) ….”Brainy people think differently”
Yesterday evening, for example.
Example 1
I read somewhere about the newest and heaviest element having been discovered at the institute from which he’s recently retired and quizzed him vis a vis his involvement.
“112?” he says “112? Can’t be new – mine’s 118. I think”
(Actually, it’s 108 and it really is named after him, but that’s evidently not a valid reason to memorise its details. Right?)
Example 2
We’re lighting the barbecue and I ask him if he’s ever seen the video of the Science Faculty of Purdue University lighting a barbecue with a bucket of liquid oxygen.
“Why on EARTH would anyone want to do that” he asks.
“Well” I venture “To get the barbecue going quickly, probably. I believe alcohol was involved”
“Alcohol? Alcohol? Given the energy in a bucket of liquid oxygen, alcohol wouldn’t have any measurable effect on the reaction” he says
”Rainer, they’d been drinking…..?”
”Aha!!!”
Like I say – brainy people think differently
You really couldn’t make this up.
I was rolling around on the floor laughing when I showed this to a mate.
“Aren’t those just the cooking instructions?” he asked.
Woooooooosh.
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Couple of millennia ago, I went to Westlake Boys High School with a couple of real swots by the names of Ian Carter and John Barker.
I drifted through with a minimum of effort coupled with eminently quantifiable talent (one teacher commended me on my optimisation talent in making a perfect 3 point landing for University Entrance – cleared the bar of the required 200 by 0.5 points) but these two guys learned every textbook inside out and back to front, including the product of the ISBN number.
When it came to practical application of all this knowledge, they were of course stuffed.
Put them on a perch and they’d parrot away all day, but getting them to read from the French textbook regularly sent Jack Bremner round the twist.
“Ow sond Lez Phillers” for “Where are the girls”.
Or “Kwelly hewerie est ill?” for “What’s the time?”
Now, my recollection of the grammar is – to say the least – vague after all these years, but I can still string words together with surprising success.
“Point sur” works quite well for “Spot on” and I believe I got a flicker of understanding the other day.
Haven’t had much success with “Frappez la Route” (Hit the road), though, and “l’Heure imbecilique” (stupid o’clock) doesn’t appear to translate too well, either.
“The Main Drag” – Le Tirez predominant – neither
Kwelly domargy….
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Haemorrhoid Fred.
I think….
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