TIO sale to disadvantage motor accident victims?

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
 
Sir – Chief Minister Adam Giles is arrogantly pushing ahead to sell TIO without a mandate, ignoring Territorian’s anger at selling their asset.
 
[In a radio interview] he failed to guarantee the Motor Accident Compensation (MAC) Scheme would be administered locally and claimants would not be adversely affected by selling TIO.
 
Mr Giles pointed out the sale of compensation schemes interstate. This would be alarming to the many MAC clients and he failed to explain to clients what privatising the scheme administration would mean to Territorians.
 
Recent TIO activities indicate TIO is actively seeking to close Workers Compensation cases to make TIO look more profitable to potential buyers.
 
Local doctors are warning [of] an unusual flurry of settlement offers being made to worker’s compensation clients and programs to assist in reintegrating workers are being abandoned, indicating TIO is actively clearing cases.
 
Worker’s Compensation and MAC benefits deserve to know how they will be cared for and whether local claims and case management staff will continue to operate if  TIO is sold.
 
TIO made $41 million in MAC scheme payments in 2013/14 and the scheme recorded a 79% solvency the past financial year, well above the target rate of 40% to 45%.
 
MAC is a no fault insurance scheme for Territorians killed or injured in road accidents and provides a wide range of benefits to help people recover and support ongoing those who are more severely injured.
 
At the public meeting about the sale of TIO last week [CEO] Richard Harding said 90 per cent of TIO’s business was made up of small Territory businesses.
 
Despite this Adam Giles has not consulted with Territory businesses about their wishes for the future of TIO.
 
Greg Bicknell, CEO of the NT Chamber of Commerce, told ABC radio: “We’ve been conducting a survey of our membership across the Territory and members have come back very strongly opposed to the privatisation.“
 
TIO belongs to Territorians not the CLP Government. Adam Giles should take his TIO sale plans to a referendum.
 
 Natasha Fyles
 Shadow Minister for Government Accountability
 
[ED – On February 14, 2006, the Opposition Leader at the time, Terry Mills, presented to Parliament a petition signed by 5955 people, and Independent Gerry Wood presented a second petition signed by 9167 petitioners, all opposed to the sale of TIO or parts of it, as proposed by the Labor Government at the time. That government dropped the idea.]