Two a penny

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National and ACT have struck a deal over ACC reform that will see the Government investigate opening the work account to competition.

A press conference was expected at about 4pm to release details of the deal which clears the way for ACC Minister Nick Smith to introduce his stalled Bill to increase levies and reduce some entitlements.

“I am pleased the Government has secured support for this critical legislation from both the Maori Party and from ACT that will see ACC’s proposed levies reduced by half,” Dr Smith said.

ACC Minister Nick Smith confirmed the ACC Reform Bill will now be introduced next week.

“Today the National and ACT Parties reached an agreement that will ensure the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Bill will be passed through all stages,” Dr Smith said.

The Maori Party earlier this week said it would support the Bill as far as a select committee hearing.

“I think it’s clear that both ACT and National have made up their minds that they think parts of ACC should be privatised, notwithstanding the fact that its cheaper than Australian equivalents and notwithstanding it’s the best compensation system in the world,” Labour’s ACC spokesman David Parker said.

Labour said the deal was inevitable but was not good for taxpayers.”

The account was opened to competition between 1998 and 2000 until a Labour government re-nationalised it.

“In the end New Zealanders will end up paying more themselves to fund the profit margins of private insurers and getting less cover..

“We’ve been through this before and it ended in a muddle – people didn’t know who was covering them . the private insurers were a lot tougher when it came to people getting treatment and long term costs were projected to go up..

“People should have a choice of insurance provider for work-related accidents in the same way that they have a choice for their home and car insurance,” Mr Hide said.”

However, ACT Leader Rodney Hide said greater competition would provide more choice, quality of service and reduce costs. .

Dr Smith said National intended to work with ACT to open the ACC work account to competition subject only to the Government receiving a report from the steering group currently considering the stocktake of ACC accounts.”

The group will provide an interim report on the competition issue no later than 1 February 2010.

The ACC Stocktake Group will also explore other areas in which the private and non-government sectors (including Iwi) can be involved in accident management and compensation.

.The only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar has sold at auction in London for close toly $700,000 after being found tucked away in a drawer in a Sydney home.
The battle-scarred flag, which was flown from the mast of HMS Spartiate during the battle, was given to Lieutenant James Clephan by his crew mates 204 years ago as a reward for his bravery during the fighting.
Lieutenant Clephan’s relatives moved to Australia in the 1960s and the flag was tucked away in the bottom drawer of a home in Castle Hill, Sydney for safe-keeping.
The 1805 naval engagement pitted the British fleet under Lord Nelson against the combined French and Spanish fleets, and the ensuing British victory was seen as a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
During a fierce bidding war the price climbed more than 30 times the original estimate, setting a new world record for a British flag.
Overnight a London auction house was stunned when the flag sold for a world record of 384,000 pounds ($687,774). .
The buyer is an American collector who wants to remain anonymous.
“So this is a passion I’ve had for history and many of these artefacts people often do not keep the story and the history together.
“I’m a collector and I’ve been collecting flags for over four decades, and I work on keeping the story and the relic together,” he said.
“In the United States it would have a nice home and if we’re not able to work something out with the British government, we of course will give it a good home in the US.
“We understand the concern people may have in the United Kingdom about the flag going to America, but we’re working on a plan to work with the British government to accommodate that concern.”
The buyer says he finds the story of Lieutenant Clephan “intriguing”, which is what attracted him to the flag. I’m sure it will be on view in the US for people to see.
“We’re familiar with the history of the lieutenant who was given the flag at the time right after the battle.
“It’s one of the most historical flags, certainly in the Western world, that’s well documented from a historical event,” he said.”

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“This is a man who worked himself up through the ranks of the British Navy and became one of only 16 captains to do that in the history of the Royal Navy

.Former rugby league full-back turned AFL convert Karmichael Hunt has agreed terms to play with a French rugby union side for six months.
The 22-year-old left Brisbane earlier today and will link up with club Biarritz Olympique Pays Basques (BOPB) to play in the French Top 14 competition.
He will return to start his AFL career with the fledging Gold Coast side, entering the competition in 2011, in May next year.
Hunt, who played six seasons with the Brisbane Broncos and represented Australia and Queensland, made headlines earlier this year when he defected from rugby league and signed a three-year deal with the new Gold Coast AFL team. The cultural side of things will be fantastic and the challenge of elite rugby is exciting,” Hunt said in a statement.
“I am really examining forward to the experience of playing and living overseas.
Hunt was given the opportunity to have a stint in French rugby as part of his contract with the new Gold Coast franchise. .
The short-term arrangement was reportedly close toly foiled after Hunt was ineligible to play as an emerging nation player from Cook Islands rather than an “import”.
His six-month contract with BOPB, based in the luxurious sea-side town of Biarritz close to the Spanish border, is reportedly worth $300,000.

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A former French spymaster denied Monday taking part in a plot to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy during his much-awaited testimony at the trial of ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin.

Yves Bertrand, the former head of the RG police intelligence service, said he had never heard of the Clearstream dirty tricks scandal before the media began reporting on it in July 2004.

Villepin and four other defendants are on trial on charges of conspiring to slander Sarkozy in 2004 by implicating him in corruption at a time when the two men were jostling to succeed president Jacques Chirac. .

The case centres on a fake list of account holders from the Clearstream financial clearing house who were said to have received kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan.

This is a completely fantastic tale, Bertrand told judges at the Paris criminal court.

Bertrand’s testimony was crucial after another defendant, Imad Lahoud, admitted in court to adding Sarkozy’s name to the list in the ex-spy chief’s office.

I never met Lahoud in my office nor anywhere else and I state that emphatically, said the ex-spy chief, who was at the helm of police intelligence for 12 years.

But Gergorin testified that he had never laid eyes on Bertrand before their face-to-face encounter in court.

Lahoud, a former employee with Franco-German aerospace giant EADS, said the meeting with Bertrand took place in March 2004 in the presence of another defendant, EADS vice president Jean-Louis Gergorin.

Three weeks of testimony have however failed to clear up questions about the bogus list and how Sarkozy’s name along with those of more than 100 prominent people ended up on it.

Dubbed the trial of the decade, the Clearstream case features a Who’s Who of big names in French politics, industry and intelligence circles, beginning with Sarkozy, who is a civil plaintiff in the case.

Judges were to wrap up testimony on Monday and begin hearing submissions from lawyers representing Sarkozy and some of the 38 other civil plaintiffs in the case.

Villepin took the stand last week to deny that he had leaked the fake list to investigators and ordered a special probe to focus on Sarkozy as one of the alleged Clearstream account holders.

The trial ends on October 23 after the defence and the prosecution make their final submissions, but a verdict is not expected before several months.

The trial ends on October 23 after the defence and the prosecution make their final submissions, but a verdict is not expected before several months.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – France – Nicolas Sarkozy

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A $50,000 reward has been posted by Lord Ashcroft for information leading to the safe return of Aisling Symes.

Meanwhile a week after two-year-old Aisling Symes’ disappearance, police say they have no leads and have issued another plea for her return.

The award offered by the

The toddler disappeared from Longburn Rd in Henderson where she was last seen with an Asian woman in her 30s walking a dog.

Today the head of the inquiry, Detective Inspector Gary Davey, said there had been no major breakthrough but had been getting a lot of information from the public.

Police poured huge resources into the search but last week said it was most likely she had been kidnapped and the mystery Asian woman may hold the key to her disappearance.

“We are still appealing for anyone who has her to come forward.

Police staff on the inquiry had been increased to 70. We just want her back.

Last week police said after an intensive search of the area around the Longburn Rd home of her deceased grandparents, they were convinced she was not in the area.”

He said today he was still hopeful someone had abducted her and was looking after her but could not rule out other possibilities.

“I believe that.

“My own genuine hope or gut feeling is that somebody does have her and she is still alive,” he told NewstalkZB today.”

The Asian woman was critical to police inquiries, he said. I am optimistic, I believe family are and certainly the investigation team are optimistic that we can find Aisling.

“She doesn’t need to fear the police.

“She doesn’t need to fear the police.

Aisling’s father said the past week has been “one very long bad day”.”

Police had “nothing solid” in the search for Aisling and all they could do was follow the potential leads they had and “make sure we keep an open mind and follow each of those phases down to its conclusion”, he said.He said the family hopes that whoever has their daughter, is looking after her.

Allan Symes told Radio New Zealand today that evenings and mornings have been especially hard for the family, who are exhausted.

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.France is ready to hand back five fragments of ancient Egyptian tomb wall paintings acquired by the Louvre museum between 2000 and 2003.
Egypt’s chief archaeologist and head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, has accused the Louvre of buying the pieces knowing they were stolen.
The Pharaonic steles are reported to be from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor.
Subject to a decision by France’s national museum scientific committee, Mr Mitterrand said he was ready to order the frescoes be handed back.
Mr Hawass asked France to return the murals after extensive discussions between the two sides, according to French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand. .
Under the UNESCO convention of 1970, member countries agreed measures to prevent the illegal export of national treasures.
Mr Hawass was quoted by the MENA news agency as saying the council had ceased cooperation with the Louvre until the murals were returned.
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France Telecom announced the replacement of the group deputy head Louis-Pierre Wenes, whom labour unions claim is the man behind stress-inducing management policies blamed for a tense working climate. The French telecom company has come under fire for the alarming suicide rate among staff members, with 24 employees having taken their lives in the last 18 months alone.

French socialist and communist opposition leaders have been calling for the resignation of both Lombard and Wenes, but the group chief executive enjoys the backing of the French government.

Wenes has been replaced by Stephen Richard, a former cabinet director for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who joined France Telecom on September 1 and was being groomed to replace the group CEO, Didier Lombard, in 2011. According to the website of French weekly Le Point , the finance minister mentioned Richard as a possible replacement for Wenes at that meeting. Lagarde reasserted her full and unwavering support for the troubled CEO after the two met last Thursday. Wenes is symbolic: he was responsible for &lsquoterror management&rsquo tactics.

A concession to unions

News of Wenes&rsquo departure was greeted with satisfaction by employees and union members.

CFDT union member Pierre Dubois told them that Wenes&rsquo ousting was the logical consequence of his perceived insensitiveness to employee suicides. He had to leave, CFE-CGC union member Pierre Morville told AFP. . A second sticking point was his refusal to negotiate on the policy of forced transfers, whereby France Telecom managers are required to change postings every three years.

There was never any kind of dialogue with Wenes, Dubois told them.

According to Ivan Le Roy, author of a book on management by stress at France Telecom mobile phone unit Orange, Richard is well perceived by most unions, or at least much better than Wenes, who was despised as a &lsquocost killer&rsquo from day 1. On September 24, Wenes had told French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that he would consider himself the victim of a monstrous manipulation if he were to take on the responsibility of employee suicides. He never accepted to meet us, not until we published an open letter calling for his resignation on September 25.

Iin a joint press release, leftwing unions Sud and Solidaires said: The nomination of St&eacutephane Richard, a close collaborator of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised concern among employees about the future of France Telecom.

Deontological concerns

Although most unions are hopeful that negotiations will start afresh with Richard, some warn against hasty optimism. Dubois was also cautious: Richard remains a big question mark &ndash we don&rsquot know much about him. We hope he will rapidly shed light on his future role.

Deontological concerns surfaced immediately after Richard nomination. We hope the management style will change, and that he will bring a fresh look to the heart of the issue: restructuring France Telecom. However, it is not altogether clear how Richard is expected to do so, given that the state is one of the company main shareholders. As a former member of government, he has been authorised to join France Telecom on condition that he abstain from any contact with the cabinet of the finance until June 30, 2012 .

France – France Telecom – telecommunication