The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has announced that it wants to increase it’s levies by double the expected rate of inflation each year over the next 3 years.
ACC have said the increases won’t be applied evenly to all vehicles with motorcycles again singled out with ACC stating motorcyclists will pay proportionately more than other road users because they are currently heavily subsided by other motorists and are more likely to be injured in an accident.
There is also a proposal to create a new ACC levy class for 0 to 250cc motorcycles, and break the greater than 600c category into 2 with 600cc to 750cc machines and 750cc and up.
Current ACC motorcycle levy classes
Proposed new ACC motorcycle levy classes
You can read more on the proposed levy classes change on the ACC website at: https://www.shapeyouracc.co.nz/have-your-say/changing-the-classification-of-motorcycles including calculations on the expected rates for each of the next 3 years.
Years 2 and 3 of the changes contain some big numbers, with the ACC levy component alone being up to $750! in some classes, though the data tries to hide this in several cases by subtracting the Ride Forever discount.
The current registration discount if you complete silver and gold Ride Forever motorcycle training program is set to expire on 30 June 2025 but there are allowances in the example calculations that indicate this may continue further into the future.
You can read more about the changes and submit your feedback to the proposals on the ACC website at: https://www.shapeyouracc.co.nz/have-your-say. Feedback is open until October 9th 2024.
What do you think about these changes? Post your thoughts below.
There are arguments that there are other road users, like cyclists that use the roads and that are even more vulnerable in an accident don’t pay a separate levy. These claims are paid out of a general fund. Just like it is with MX riders, MTB riders and horse riders to name a few. What i’m getting at is these are all more or less (with exceptions) HOBBIES that people do for enjoyment and probably considered high risk of injury ones at that. For the most part, for many, motorcycling is also a HOBBY and it is done for the enjoyment not a solely a form of transport if at all. This is something done for fun and yet we are targeted for levies at least twice for, or exponentially more times if we have more than one motorcycle.
It would be interesting to know statistics, if it has every been scrutinized and published, regarding motorcycle accidents broken down into categories like:
Who was at fault in a crash (rider or third party,eg motor car/truck)
Was the rider a holder of a current motorcycle license.
Was the motorcycle holding current WOF and rego.
While I agee that motorcycle riders are more likely to be injured in an accident, I don’t agree that they should be penalized or discriminated against by paying outrageous levies.
I would be very surprised if farm bike injuries, MX /Enduro injuries, unlicensed riders, unregistered motorcycles, no current WOF made up a large proportion of ACC injury claims. Yet they would not be paying their dues in rego and ACC levies. It all gets loaded onto law abiding riders to pay the bill.
If there is any currant statistics published I would be greatful to be directed to them for reading.
Suggestion for those with more than one registered motorcycle, it should be possible to link through registration numbers to the riders drivers license number, after all I haven’t yet come across anyone who can ride two bikes at the same time. With today’s technology it should be easy.
I’ve been saying for years that the “rego” should be on the driver’s licence, not the vehicle – because, as Roger says, you can’t physically drive more than one vehicle at a time – of any type. We should all pay one fee each year, regardless of how many vehicles we have.
Sadly, the reality is: ACC takes money from us by grubbing taxes everywhere it can, including the taxes on petrol. Motorcycles use less petrol than cars, therefore we pay less taxes at the pump. In order to “compensate” for this perceived “loss”, ACC levies are higher for motorcycles – because gods forfend that a single cent escapes the grasp of ACC.
As ACC’s interested only in making billions of dollars in profits for their overseas shareholders, rather than common sense or logic, they’re not going to do the right thing and just charge one “rego” per licensed rider/driver, not when they can grub money off us by charging ACC levies on every vehicle (in addition to all their other incomes from employers, employees etc).
I would be accepting of this proposal if the government took the wearing of safety gear more seriously. We have motorcycle advocates on the ACC board and have managed to put up a few billboards. Not reflective of the fees paid. The current New Zealand laws allow for riders to wear swimwear and bare feet as long they have a helmet on over 50 kph. Under 50 kph you can get away with religious headdress. I know this after chatting with a policeman after following 2 riders on big bikes and they were wearing shorts, singlet and jandles
Lets advocate for total body skin coverage, arms, legs and hands. I don’t need to see the photos of skin and flesh worn to the bone, but perhaps the decision makers do.
Having read through the https://www.acc.co.nz/assets/2024-Levy-Consultation-submission-analysis-report.pdf it appears that ACC essentially just ignored the feedback they were given. Most of the feedback saying that engine size isn’t a good measure of risk.
The proposed rates are here: https://www.shapeyouracc.co.nz/assets/Consult-docs/2024/ACC_Levy-system-change-proposals_FINAL.pdf