Bikers pay for Smith’s ACC con
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The massive increases of up to 69 per cent in ACC levies for motorcyclists is hitting home now that 1 July has passed and the new registration year begins, says Labour MP Rick Barker.
“The ACC component for registering a 650cc+ motorcycle has increased from $250.69 to $426.92, adding a whopping $174.23 to the bill,” Rick Barker said.
“ACC Minister Nick Smith has brought in a tax increase of monumental proportions, penalising bikers for spurious reasons at a time when the Government is telling everyone else to show restraint.
“I have received many very grumpy and angry phone calls, text messages and emails from bikers who describe themselves as seriously p****d off, to use their mildest and politest language.”
Rick Barker said ACC’s recently announced $2 billion surplus has thrown high octane petrol onto the flames.
“It has been calculated that the surplus, if converted into $10 bills and put end to end, would stretch for 28,000 kilometres. The distance from Cape Rëinga to Bluff is a mere 2056 kilometres in comparison.
“The extraordinary size of the surplus in $10 notes could line both sides of every state highway with 6000 kilometres left over. The distance of state highway in NZ is 10,894 Kilometres. ACC has a surplus that can line each side of all our State Highways with money to burn,” Rick Barker said.
“Nick Smith had tried to justify the dramatic hike in levies by saying ACC was broke. There are 2 billion pieces of evidence to prove him wrong and show that this is the con job of the decade.
“Bikers are being fleeced for purely vindictive reasons and Nick Smith should reset the levies to what they were as increasing them is simply not justified.”
