Prime Minister John Key is a political gambler with his instincts honed by years in New York's money markets.
Partial privatisation of state-owned energy companies and coal producer Solid Energy have been put on the National Party's election agenda.
• Employers welcome ACC partial privitisation
Now, Mr Key is gambling on voter support for the partial privatisation of ACC - a touchstone organisation for many New Zealanders.
A previous National administration made an attempt at privatisation in 1998.
Insurance companies did the rounds, touting their competitive models to employers and the media.
The then Employers' Federation was a great supporter of privatisation, just as its replacement, Business New Zealand, is now.
Lobbying efforts received a major boost in November 1997 when the Cabinet agreed in principle to introducing an element of private competition into the accident compensation scheme regardless of the 1996 coalition agreement, which made a commitment to retain the public monopoly.
This sudden about-face was soon followed by the announcement in May 1998 that private insurance companies would be allowed to compete with ACC, starting in July 1999.
The Labour Party then responded by promising to repeal that development if it were returned to power.
Private competition in accident compensation has since become a controversial political issue that is likely to be on the agenda for every election from now.
What many will have forgotten is the cherry picking adopted by insurance companies, which only took the best and left taxpayers to pick up what was left out of the accounts. While many employers reporting a brilliant experience, others were not so happy.
ACC has the ability to source the best treatment for its claimants, but often, because of its size and ongoing changes in management at board and executive level, it fails to meet the challenge.
ACC Minister Nick Smith headed his press release: "Increasing choice in workplace accident compensation". While this was only the release of a discussion document, the detail lay buried among pages of press releases.
The Department of Labour is accepting submissions on proposals until July 15 this year. The Government will consider the views expressed during consultation and make final decisions before the election on November 26.
In a separate part of the release, Dr Smith says the Government is proposing to give employers a choice of purchasing work-related personal injury insurance from either ACC or a private insurer from October 1, 2012.
"This will keep the pressure on ACC to perform," he said.
That sounds pretty much as though the Government is going ahead with partial privatisation of accident compensation come what may, if it wins the election.
Established in 1974, the compulsory, 24-hour, no-fault compensation system for victims of accidents and some occupational diseases had become one of the central strands of New Zealand's social security network, a paper written in 1998 said.
Many still see it that way.
Dr Smith upset the Rail and Maritime Union by singling out KiwiRail as a pin-up company for an improved safety record, saying worker participation was the key to turning around the rail industry's safety record.
The union completely missed the point. Any incentive to reduce workplace accidents must be the total focus of any changes to ACC. If workers can help lift workplace safety, then surely they should do so as a matter of course.
Those wanting ACC to remain as it is must take a hard look at the facts. We already pay for ACC through levies that continually creep up. Try as it will, ACC cannot seem to reduce the tail of long-term claimants who have not gone back to work. Liabilities continue to stack up and eventually, somebody - taxpayers - will have to pay that bill.
If competition can get ACC to refocus its energies into better results for workers, employers and taxpayers in general, it should be welcomed.
However, the onus is on the Government to this time get it correct. Selling the sizzle is the easy part. If competition is introduced in 2012, it will be well embedded by 2014, the next general election year. By then, much damage could have been done to both the current model and workplace accident statistics.
