Sunday, December 28, 2014

Corporate Culture: Suncorp Insurance Privatisation Push

One of the nation’s biggest insurers has stepped up calls for privatising billions of dollars in personal insurance schemes by arguing the rollout of the ­national disability insurance scheme should be a catalyst for further change.

Setting the scene for a showdown with unions, Suncorp is spearheading a push for the privatisation of personal injury schemes underwritten by the government that include workers’ compensation and compulsory third-party.

Opening a new front in the debate, the Queensland giant has declared the reform process for the NDIS and proposed national injury insurance scheme for dealing with catastrophic injuries should be a “key catalyst” for privatising the non-catastrophic personal injury schemes.

The proposed NIIS is supposed to complement the NDIS by relieving a big part of the cost of the scheme. The NIIS is yet to be fully formed, but the government has been working with the states on a federated model of state-based schemes for people who are catastrophically injured, building on existing schemes for motor ­vehicle and workplace accidents.

Suncorp’s executive general manager of statutory portfolio, Chris McHugh, said national disability reform meant governments were looking at their personal injury schemes and changes to dealing with catastrophic injury provided the states with the “perfect opportunity to reform your schemes, carve out the non-catastrophic injury to the private sector”.

The Suncorp Group — which owns providers such as GIO, AAMI and Suncorp Insurance — has told the government’s ­competition policy review that privatising state-owned schemes has the potential to increase ­productivity and generate billions of dollars for the economy.

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