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The ACC was set up to provide a no-fault accident insurance and medical cover system that would ensure all those who suffered injury could get the treatment they needed at no (or minimal) cost to themselves.

In order to fund this wonderful scheme, we all pay a percentage of our salary or wages to the ACC Corporation who then seem to spend a great deal of that money trying to evade their obligations to pay compensation and other amounts to those who suffer some accident.

Good examples of this are the many keyboard users who have suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome or some other injury brought on by bad ergonomics or work practices. ACC has gone to great lengths (and expense) to ensure that programmers, data-entry operators and other who suffer from this debilitating affliction as a result of their job -- are entitled to no real compensation.

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But the link between the ITC industries and ACC becomes even more involved and incredible when you read this story from today's NZ Herald.

It seems that, although ACC has insufficient funds to pay for the effects wrought by accident or injury, they *do* have enough spare cash to invest in risky IT ventures such as Woosh's wireless network.

Yes, that's right, while they're effectively forcing aged widows to sell their houses in order to repay lump-sum compensation following a successful appeal against such payments, they've got a cool $1.6 million to gamble on a company going up against the might of Telecom and its DSL monopoly.

What the hell's going on here?

Has the ACC become a venture capital fund rather than a government-owned healthcare funding agency?

I wonder how many Telecom shareholders are happy to hear that the money they're paying ACC, allegedly for providing accident and injury cover, is actually being invested in a company which directly competes with the company they've got a stake in?

But I guess that you'd really be pee'd if you were a Telecom shareholder suffering from work-related, keyboard induced carpal tunnel syndrome eh?

However, I guess that if challenged about this "investment", ACC will come up with some wonderful excuse for getting into the ITC venture capital markets and effectively playing blackjack with taxpayer's funds.

What do you think?

Have you suffered injury from excessive or improper keyboard use? Did you get any real compensation for that injury?

Should the ACC be dabbling in the ITC venture capital markets and whose head should roll if that money is lost (as it well could be)?

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