ACC

A Dunedin woman whose hearing loss resulted from a fatal car accident says a Government policy change reducing ACC financial support for hearing needs is a "kick in the guts".

ACC claimants should not have to take court action to avoid "intrusive" and unnecessary work fitness tests, a distressful experience as was highlighted in a recent Supreme Court case, Dunedin ACC campaigner Denise Powell says.

About 100 people were injured on New Zealand skifields each day last season, a figure ACC hopes to cut through education.

The Supreme Court has upheld a Mosgiel woman's ACC appeal in a strongly worded landmark decision concerning fitness for full-time work.

The proportion of ACC elective surgery review decisions going in favour of the patient has been increasing.

When Brigitte Tait developed agonising back problems after being knocked over by a car in Dunedin when she was 28, it never occurred to her that, three years later, she would be battling for ACC to fund surgery.

Employer representatives yesterday welcomed changes to workplace accident compensation announced as a discussion document by ACC Minister Nick Smith.

Prime Minister John Key is a political gambler with his instincts honed by years in New York's money markets.

No voter should be in doubt now about the choices that will be before him or her at November's general election. Unusually in New Zealand politics, the ruling party has declared its hand well in advance of the poll, seeking a specific mandate across several policy areas to govern for a further term.

ACC's workplace accident compensation scheme will be opened up to private competition from October next year, the Government said today.