COMPETITION STIFLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 7

COMPETITION STIFLED

. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IMPLICATIONS OF BILL “With the conclusion of the recent war, most of us, I think, looked forward to the gradual resumption of normal conditions of life and international trade, instead of which we have experienced a development of isolationistic and nationalistic ideas in a number of States, with the resulting restraint or restriction of business generally,” said the chairman of directors of the National Insurance Company of New Zealand, Ltd., Mr G. R. Ritchie, at the annual meeting of shareholders of the company yesterday. Mr Ritchie added that in some countries this had been accompanied by the attempt on the part of their Governments to stifle all competition in industry, and indeed professions, by the establishment of a monopoly by the Government itself. The latest example of this, he said, had been the introduction recently by the New Zealand Government of an amendment to the Workers’ Compensation Act, which provided, among other things for the monopoly by the Government itself of all insurance by employers against their liability to employees imposed by the Act. A day or two ago it was announced that the Bill imposing this monopoly had been passed by the Lower House, and as it was a party measure it would no doubt be ratified by the Legislative Council in due course, Mr Ritchie said. So far a copy of the Bill in its finally amended form had not been available, but it was understood that the right of insure employers against their liability under the Act would be taken from companies and other insurers from April 1 1949. ’Those who had followed the debates on the Bill in the House would agree that no valid reason was offered for this drastic action, Mr Ritchie continued. The insurance companies had not only given excellent service to their client employers for many years past, but in doing so had also given sympathetic and generous treatment to the workers themselves. They had conducted their business in competition with the State department of the Government at a small profit, and as proof of the service they had provided they had retained, in competition with the State department, 85 per cent, of the total insurance. “As far as this company is concerned.” Mr Ritchie declared, “ the mnonpolising by the Government of the insurance under the Workers’ Compensation Act, will mean a substantial reduction in its New Zealand income, the effect and extent of which it is not possible to estimate at present with any degree of accuracy.”