ACC deal sees a Little light

$350 million too much is being taken from productive businesses and workers. Without this charge, the economy would benefit from a net 700 additional jobs and a $70m a year boost to GDP.

His figures come from a report by Infometrics, an economics consultancy, and an ACC recommendation that the 2015/16 work levy on employers be cut by 21 per cent and the earners’ levy by 5 per cent. The Government announced levy reductions of $450m but the work levy was trimmed by just 5 per cent and the earners’ levy not changed.

Little cites estimates showing average households will pay $60 a year above the ACC-recommended level; small businesses $1500 more, big businesses an extra $45,000.

If bigger cuts are affordable and the ACC recommended them, he asked Prime Minister John Key, why won’t the levies be lopped by $350m a year now? Key’s reply was that the Government based its decision ‘‘on what it thinks is appropriate’’ and the ACC sometimes is wrong. He denied using levies to fill a Budget hole.

A patsy question in Parliament prompted Key to recall Little urging the rejection of ACC board levy recommendations in 2009. Little then was secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union. Key triumphantly implied he was guilty of double standards: he could reject the board’s recommendations on one occasion ‘‘and apparently be a slave to their recommendations another’’. Little did dispute the recommendations in 2009, but was challenging proposals to increase levies based on figures he regarded as ‘‘deliberate accounting trickery’’.

Presumably he sees no sleight of hand in the latest ACC board advice and – without any inconsistency – wants a better deal for levy payers.