MAGNZ Calls for Transparency: Are Motorcyclists Getting a Raw Deal?

Pete: 00:00:00

Are you tired of the ever rising cost of motorcycle registration here in New Zealand? If you're nodding your head, you're not alone.

I'm Pete and this is Keep It Twisted, the official podcast of Mag nz. Before we get into it, a quick thank you to everyone who ordered a limited edition Keep It Twisted tubular scarf.

The uptake has been tremendous and they've all gone. Every order has been packed and dispatched and the team at MAGNZ really appreciate the support you've all shown.

We're already thinking about the next design which will go on sale at the end of November. Please stick around until the end of today's episode because I'll name check everyone who ordered a scarf after the last episode.

Today I'm going to give an update.

It's a critical analysis of the issues raised by material we've been able to obtain as a result of our Freedom of Information request to ACC and nzta. There's a lot of information to absorb, so I'll try to explain it and describe the ramifications of what we've found in as clear a way as possible.

in: 2027

That's not a small increase.

And while the government found the time and resources to redesign the engine capacity band and push those higher levies through, they quietly walked away from a fairer way of collecting ACC levies, a pathway their own minister had approved. Here's what the material shows.

In March: 2025

worked out later. By October: 2025

No motorcycle specific analysis was ever done. The Joint Ministry and ACC Transport investigation that was supposed to happen simply never occurred. They weren't idle though.

They developed the new engine capacity bands, adjusted the cross subsidy and locked in the levy increases. When it came to looking at actual exposure, distance traveled or multiple bike ownership, apparently nobody bothered to do the homework.

We're not claiming they had a finished replacement scheme ready to go. The problem is the opposite.

They approved a legal pathway and then abandoned it before officials could properly investigate what distance based charging could could actually mean for motorcycle owners. Contrast that with the levy increases themselves. Those received a lot more attention.

p dives with officials in May: 2024

Yet even there, the fundamental questions remained unanswered. Why was the dividing line between medium and large bikes moved from 600cc to 700?

ACC's own analysis suggested that bikes between 601cc's and 750cc's had a claim experience closer to that of smaller machines than larger machines. So they recommended to shift the boundary.

That seems fair enough on the surface, but the release material doesn't show that 750cc is a statistically validated risk threshold. There's no confidence intervals, no significant testing and Nothing that identified 751cc's as a meaningful breakpoint.

None of the analysis took account of rider age, motorcycle type, distance travelled, rider experience or the circumstances of any crashes. ACC's own options paper described the 750cc boundary as providing only arguably marginally more distinction than the old 600cc grouping.

So what actually changes between 750cc's and 751cc's that justifies putting their owners into materially different levy classes? After all the documents have been released and reviewed, that basic question still has no statistically demonstrated answer.

And that sits inside a bigger problem. Has engine capacity ever been shown to be an independently reliable measure of risk?

The release material talks about a direct correlation between capacity and injury cost, yet claim relativity was described as similar for all categories above 126cc. The figure doesn't rise consistently across every band.

The cost relativity for bikes between 601 and 750cc was actually lower than it was for bikes between 401 and 600cc.

NZTA itself warned internally that engine capacity can be misleading because different capacity groups contain several different styles of bikes and different rider populations.

MAGNZ hasn't seen any multivariate analysis, any capacity threshold analysis, or any motorcycle specific distance modeling that properly establishes engine capacity as the independent driver of the risk being attributed to each group. Here's the part that should set alarm bells ringing. The annual ACC levy component for bikes over 750cc's jumped from roughly $428 to $625.

That's a 46% increase.

At the same time, NZTA data shows that the number of license months purchased for those bikes fell from 35,102 months in July 25th to 24,564 in July 26th. That's a 30% drop in one year. Across all motorcycle classes the drop was about 17%.

A 46% levy increase landing at the same time as a 30% fall in license months is not a sustainable funding model. More and more normally law abiding riders are choosing to ride without a current rego.

You cannot keep charging fewer and fewer people more and more money and call it strategy.

Eventually the maths will catch up with the politics MAGNZ is calling on New Zealand MPs to ask the following who decided that the Accident Compensation Amendment Bill should not proceed and what advice supported taking distance based collection off the legislative program? Why was no analysis done on motorcycle distance travelled, multiple bike ownership, rider based charges or distance funded models for motorcyclists?

What evidence actually establishes engine capacity as the independently reliable measure of motorcycling risk? And why was 751cc's chosen as the higher threshold point?

Why was extensive work completed to impose higher ownership based levies while alternative charging models were left largely unexplored?

And will the government suspend the next scheduled motorcycle levy increase while the lawfulness of the underlying classification and risk rating methodology is still before the High Court? Motorcyclists aren't asking for a free ride. MAG NZ supports the fundamental purpose of ACC and believes that we should all make a fair contribution.

What we are asking for is transparent, auditable modeling, proper consideration of actual exposure, crash responsibility, rider factors and the reality of multiple motorcycle ownership. We want a serious look at distance based, rider based and hybrid alternatives.

We want levies to be based on credible evidence, actual exposure and individual circumstances, not just a price tag attached to the engine size of your bike. This now belongs in Parliament and on the general election agenda. There are roughly 100,000 motorcycle license holders in this country.

Add in partners, families, employers and communities and we are not an administrative rounding error. MAGNZ is calling for the next scheduled increase to be suspended while Mark Chappell's judicial review is still being heard by the High Court.

On top of that, we're calling on every political party to tell motorcycle license holders what their motorcycle ACC levy policy will be before they ask for our votes. Silence isn't a policy and another automatic increase is not reform.

The question for Scott Simpson and for every politician who wants Kiwi motorcyclists to vote for them is simple.

If the government was able to do the work required to charge motorcyclists more, why wasn't it prepared to do the work needed to find out whether there was a fairer way of doing so? If any of those politicians are listening, there's an open invitation to appear on Keep It Twisted.

Please join me in the studio and let's discuss your party's position in clear terms. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Magnz has now received a huge amount of information as a result of Freedom of Information requests and will continue to work through it and share our critical analysis with you in future episodes of Keep It Twisted. Before I go, here is the second part of the Shout out to everyone who's ordered a Keep It Twisted scarf.

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