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Mark Hinchliffe·
Motorbike news
··4 Comments·2 min read

CTP insurance fight returns for riders

MCC NSW chairman Christopher CJ Burns CTP
MCC NSW chairman Christopher CJ Burns

Riders who successfully fought against unfair Compulsory Third Party insurance hikes in 2013 that could have led to more than $2000 for Greenslips now face another CTP battle.

The NSW Government has proposed changing the very structure of CTP which not only affects riders, but every motorist. 

The NSW Government’s proposed changes:

  • Give the insurance company control over an injured person’s medical treatment. (Your doctor will no longer decide what treatment you should receive and should be paid for.);
  • Limit an injured person’s rights to receive compensation for lost income if injured. (If injured people can’t go back to their jobs, they could lose everything.); and
  • Significantly restrict injured people’s access to legal representation, leaving injured motorists to fight big insurance companies on their own for basic entitlements.

Motorcycle Council of NSW chairman Christopher “CJ” Burns says they plan to fight the proposed changes during Motorcycle Awareness Month.

The campaign includes a petition calling on the Premier to leave motor vehicle accident injury rights alone.

SIGN THE PETITION

Christopher sarcastically pointed out that preliminary reports leading up to the proposed changes were written or commissioned by the Motor Accidents Authority which operates the CTP scheme. (It has since been renamed the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), but the sentiments are the same:

“NSW has set the stage for this change with a number of reports written or commissioned by the MAA to the MAA about the MAA scheme that the MAA runs and the MAA has wanted to change for five years in order for the MAA to run a new scheme,” he says.

 

NSW MCC chairman Chris Burns (left), NSW Transport Minister Duncan Gay and police officer at last year’s awareness launch
NSW MCC chairman Chris Burns (left), NSW Transport Minister Duncan Gay and police officer at last year’s awareness launch

The Government advises that the proposed changes will only affect those with minor injuries with under 11% Whole Person Impairment (WPI). However, this is nearly 90% of injured motor accident victims.

A fused ankle is only 4% WPI and this could ruin your life. A rider receiving a knee injury could have their entire future changed for the worse. All for the saving of $3 per week on a Greenslip.

Christopher agrees that there is need for change to be made to the CTP/Greenslip system in NSW. However, he says many people are not convinced that the proposed changes are the way to go.

He says the Motorcycle Council of NSW and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers support the Save Our CTP campaign and petition. It is a joint initiative of the Australian Lawyers Alliance and the Injured Persons Association.

It may only be in NSW now, but if the insurance companies win there, watch it spread to other states.

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Mark Hinchliffe
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4 Comments

  1. This sounds like the most costly way to save a dollar I have ever heard of!
    Did the person who came up with this idea also work for the Dick Smiths electronics chain ?
    Sounds like the brilliant accounting practice of buy something sell it back for less buy it back again for more then let it sit in storage then put it on the shelf for thirty percent more than it sells for every where else.
    This brilliant idea will see people who could be working and paying taxes having to live on disability pensions because they didn’t get the right treatment in a timely fashion if at all.

  2. The problem with anything government mandated is that the service providers have a captive market. That inevitably leads to collusion, whether that be on prices or in this case on what or how they pay out. You have the illusion of a free market, but I’ll bet prices are all pretty much the same. Now it should be common knowledge that the NSW Liberals are pretty much in bed with the insurance companies: they’ve tried for this before, they’ve had workers’ comp overhauled in their favour, the MCIS levy forced onto motorists, and now they want to try this again. But you know what?–you can thank all those NRMA members that voted for demutualisation for this. Some of us could see this coming and resolutely voted against, but for the bribe of a few poxy shares the rest gave up the one moderating influence on the NSW insurance market; the one organisation that through its mutual status kept the rest of the bastards honest. So while Nick Whitlam sits at home counting his silver, we all pay higher premiums for increasingly crappier services. You reap what you sow, and you know what?–I told you so!

  3. How does that old saying go: “putting lipstick on a pig, doesn’t change the fact, that the pig is still a pig.” Corruption knows no bounds, regardless of what government it be.

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