Liberals clutching at straws
By Tony Iltis
HOBART — The Liberal state government is desperately trying to convince an increasingly sceptical Tasmanian population that privatising the Hydro Electric Corporation will benefit the community. Premier Tony Rundle has sought assistance from Liberal Party big guns.
Prime Minister John Howard has promised to write off half of Tasmania's debt to the commonwealth if the HEC is sold. This unsubtle blackmail provided an easy point-scoring opportunity for the Labor.
Federal opposition leader Kim Beazley has promised to write off Tasmania's debt regardless of who wins the election and regardless of whether the HEC is sold.
Earlier, Victorian premier Jeff Kennett visited the state and announced that Tasmania was doomed within three years unless the HEC was privatised.
The evidence from Kennett's state suggests otherwise: none of the promised benefits to the community materialised after Victoria's electricity utility was privatised. Instead, household consumers have been hit with increased costs and decreased service.
Kennett also launched a scare campaign against Tasmania's Labor leader, Jim Bacon, focusing on his previous involvement in the trade union movement and accusing him of being a socialist. Liberal campaign ads show Bacon, when he was a state leader of the Builders Labourers Federation, with former national BLF leader Norm Gallagher.
Democratic Socialist candidate for Denison (Group B) Jenny Forward told Green Left Weekly: "The advertisements are actually boosting support for Labor. The Howard government, with its attacks on workers' living standards and their right to organise, has shown people why they need unions.
"Kennett and Rundle are lying when they call Jim Bacon a socialist. They know that, if elected, Bacon and the ALP will govern on behalf of big business, just like they do. If people want to vote for socialist candidates they'll have to vote for the Democratic Socialists."
The ALP, the Democratic Socialists and the far-right Tasmania First Party are opposed to the sale of the HEC. The Tasmanian Greens propose leasing the HEC to private business for 50 years.