Wellington, April 23 NZPA - It is not a surprise that the Government looks likely to privatise areas of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Green Party MP Kevin Hague says.

An interim report by the ACC stocktake working group on opening up parts of ACC's business to competition has said the idea is workable, Radio New Zealand reported today.

It said the report was understood to outline the introduction of competition for workplace insurance.

The report was delivered to ACC Minister Nick Smith a few days ago, and his office would not comment on its contents.

Green Party ACC spokesman Mr Hauge said his party had been expecting the move since the Government and ACT "did their deal" when the last ACC bill was passed.

The Accident Compensation Amendment Bill raises levies and cuts some entitlements, measures Dr Smith said were essential to deal with huge deficits.

In exchange for ACT's votes, which ensured the bill passed all its stages, the Government was going to open ACC's work account to private competition if the steering group recommended it -- which they now seem to have done.

What the Government called "the opening up of the working account" everyone else called "privatisation", Mr Hauge said.

"ACC is a world-leading service...it's not broken, it's just a question of the funding mechanism that you choose."

The Government, and their Labour predecessors, chose to fund ACC like it was a private insurance scheme, he said.

"If they funded it like every other government service, then the problem disappears."

Privatisation was the Government's "goal, it's not a mechanism for dealing with the problem".

"So, this is what they've been working towards all along."

Council of the Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said unions would not be the only ones against the opening up of ACC to competition -- there would be widespread opposition.

Other countries, including Australia, used similar schemes and they did not work, she said.