A June 30 public meeting launched a community group to fight the Queensland Labor government's planned sell-off of $15 billion worth of public assets.
Electrical Trades Union state secretary Peter Simpson told the meeting that, at the last state election, the ALP told ETU members it was the anti-privatisation party. Particularly enraged by Labor's about-face, the ETU has been leading the "Light on the hill" campaign against the sell-offs.
"This is about the broader community", Simpson said. "I don't give a rat's arse even if we did not have a union member involved in the areas targeted for privatisation. This isn't about our membership. This is about our social views of the world as far as public asset ownership goes."
He slammed the government's lack of consultation with unions and the community before pushing ahead with the move.
The meeting was organised by the Socialist Alliance. Speaking on behalf of SA, Paul Benedek said the government's claim that the economic crisis makes privatisation the only option is deceitful. The "economic crisis is an argument for more public ownership, not less", he said.
As elsewhere, privatisation will lead to higher prices, worse services and job lay-offs. Benedek said the climate crisis means the public sector must be expanded to fast-track the shift to renewable energy and a mass public transport system.
Benedek emphasised the need for a strong community campaign to defeat the plan. "How do we mobilise the 84% of Queenslanders who oppose to these moves? If that opposition were mobilised into action, the sell-off would be dead in the water."
He also said there were lessons to be learnt from the NSW fight against privatisation and the Your Rights at Work campaign that helped bring down the previous Howard Coalition government. That lesson, he said, is that mass protest movements can beat governments.
Drew Hutton from the Queensland Greens said: "The Greens are the only parliamentary party in Australia that is consistently and coherently anti-privatisation … the Greens have been an integral part of the anti-privatisation campaign in NSW.
"If you are talking about a transition from the sort of economy you have now, to a sustainable economy — from an economy dependent on fossil fuels to a low-carbon or zero carbon economy then you have to talk about having key assets in public hands", he said
David Matters from the Rail Tram and Bus Union said the Bligh government "is taking the view of a short narrow process of selling your house and quitting your job in order to buy the groceries".
[The next meeting of the Save Our Public Assets campaign is 6.30pm July 9 at the TLC building, 2nd floor, 16 Peel St, Sth Brisbane. Ph Paul 0410 629 088, Gary 0438 176 890.]