As written and posted by Dave Cooke on the CTP Bookface site. Morning all. As you know we had our meeting last night with the MAA. It’s appropriate that you now receive an update of the results of your hard work so far. On behalf of motorcyclists, CJ Burns and Brian Wood attended on behalf of the MCC of NSW and I attended on behalf od the NSW Motorcycle Allaince. The usual members of the MAA Motorcycle Working Party were in attendace as well. Julie Newman also attended. She is the CEO of the Safety, Return To Work And Support Division, which means she sits on the Board of the MAA. She was impressive to deal with and listened very closely to our concerns. Overall, the meeting was well run, and we were treated with respect and professional courtesy. The meeting also ran considerably over time, as you can imagine. Firstly, let me inform you that we have confirmed this morning with the Shooters and Fishers Party that they intend to continue to hold the bill up over the winter recess to give everyone time to look at the bill a bit harder. This is a huge win for us, and exactly what we asked the Shooters and Fishers to do for us when we first met with them on this a couple of weeks ago. It is also a massive embarrassment for the government and Finance Minister Pearce. It also means that Treasurer Baird must now deliver the budget without having the CTP plans locked away. The main benefit in all of that is that now we have time to work with the Shooters and Fishers and the Government to hopefully ammend the things we do not like. There are some good things in this bill, but there are also things we are deeply concerned about. We now have an opportunity to work on those things. In terms of what was discussed last night with the MAA (the department that runs the CTP system), there was a lot of questions asked and a lot of answers given. Rather than give you “our version” of the answers we received, we have requested the MAA to provide us with written answers to a bunch of questions which we can then publish here for you. You all can then decide for yourself whether you are satisfied or not with those answers and let us know your thoughts. We hope to be able to publish that for you in the next day or so. On the headline matter of Greenslip premiums for motorcycles, you can all give yourselves an “interim” pat on the back. Since this started, we have said that our chances of totally stopping this bill were slim. We still feel that is probably the case in the long term. It is likely there may be some amendments around the treatment of children and legal representation and appeals processes, but we still feel the bill will pass eventually. On that basis, we always said that motorcycle premiums were in danger of massive increases under a switch to a no-fault scheme, and we offered proof as to why. Many people claimed we were making it up, and some of them have even come on this page. We said that the MAA would need to cross-subsidise motorcycle premiums (charge everyone else more and give the extra to us) if our premiums were to remain stable and affordable. Last night, the MAA confirmed that what we had been saying was absolutely correct, and that massive cross-subsidisation would be required if bike premiums were to remain stable. They have now committed to doing exactly that. They ran us through their plans and how they intend to set up a fund that will move money around inside the system to subsidise our premiums. And we are talking hundreds of dollars per bike. The result is that the relativities between car and bike premiums will remain as they are currently. So we shouldn’t see an increase, assuming they stick to their word. They have also said they are prepared to give us that undertaking in writing. This is a huge win for all of us, and is what we were hoping to achieve from the start. Now, to counter that, it is worth noting that the legislation itself does not refer specifically to how premiums are set. That is entirely a matter for the MAA. The MAA is prepared to give us undertakings that they will look after us, but we will need to always remain vigilant on this, because as we are about to see in Victoria with the TAC, they can change those relativities any time they like with the stroke of a pen. The only thing that stops them is knowing that we can be a formidable foe if they try. You can all take heart from this. Your work has been brutally effective, and we have what we want. Firstly, the bill is stalled. Secondly, if it does get up, our premiums will be subsidised and shouldn’t rise. So effectively, an estimated extra 1,000 injured riders per year will be able to access compensation, and it won’t cost us any extra. Obviously there’s still a long way to go on all this and much to still play out, but we are in front now. Well done.psoted
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:22:01 +0000
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