Just attended the protest by the Ulysses Motorcycle Club and friends at Parliament (photos to follow).   Biggest demonstration here for a while with at least 600 bikes and probably 1000 people.   Bikers are prepared to pay their fair share in terms of ACC, but increases of $500 a year are simply not fair.

Annette King spoke on behalf of Labour MPs present (myself, Charles Chauvel and Chris Hipkins) and made the point that National’s approach is fundamentally undermining the ACC scheme.  It was never designed as a user pays insurance scheme. If each category of person pays to meet the costs of accidents in their field then we can expect to see rugby players and clubs paying huge levies and the elderly and farmers as well.

It was great that the bikers I spoke to at the rally understand that they are only one of the groups under attack from National’s changes. I think National have badly miscalculated the strength of feeling here, and the fact that Kiwis understand that the only people who will win from a user pays, privatised ACC are lawyers and insurance companies. Watch out for a big protest from the biker community on November 17th.  It will be big.