Three months after wining a state election, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been given the green light by the June 6-7 ALP state conference to push ahead with her $15 billion sell-off of state-owned assets.
The assets to be sold over the next three to five years include Queensland Rail's coal haulage business, the Port of Brisbane and Queensland Motorways. While the sell-off is formally against ALP policy and opposed by the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU), the government's determination raises the question of how the privatisations should be opposed.
The Socialist Alliance in Queensland is circulating the following statement as a contribution to that discussion.
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Bligh's announcement that her government plans to sell off public assets including rail, ports, forests and roads is an outrage that has rightly angered workers, unions, pensioners and Queenslanders generally.
Privatisation means workers being sacked, higher prices, and worse services — all in the name of profits for a few. This is our experience with Queensland energy privatisation, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank.
Far from solving "budget challenges", revenues that previously went to public services such as hospitals and schools instead flow to corporate bottom lines.
And once privatisation is used to "balance the budget", it is a slippery slope for more sell-offs later.
The economic crisis: an argument for more public ownership, not less
Bligh's argument that the global economic crisis means she has no choice but to privatise is rubbish. While stating that she's not "a Wall Street banker" who caused the crisis but just has to deal with it, her sell-off would hand over more assets to the very "Wall Street banker" types that have caused the crisis!
And what is the crucial motive that justifies serious harm to workers and communities? Getting back Queensland´s "AAA" rating from Moody's rating agency — the same Moody´s that has been complicit in the economic crisis! There is nothing sacred about AAA — even sections of NSW business criticise that state´s obsession with a AAA rating.
Rather than sacrificing communities to privatisation, we need to fight for the expansion of the public sector to create a sustainable Queensland. We must move to renewable energy, and radically expand public transport, as quickly as possible.
What about democracy? We never voted for privatisation!
Queenslanders are clearly opposed to the plan. Even Bligh´s own ALP branch in South Brisbane voted for her expulsion from the party. But in the lead up to the ALP state conference Bligh adopted a bullying stance and insisted that she would ignore the conference vote if it opposed the privatisations.
How can we stop the sell-off?
That the state Labor Party conference rolled over for Bligh suggests that we need a different strategy from one that relies on a factional numbers game within the ALP. What is needed instead is a massive campaign that mobilises the enormous opposition to the sell-off, and makes it impossible for the government to implement its plan.
Such a campaign would include public protests to demonstrate the level of opposition, plus serious industrial action against any privatisation attempts. To build such a campaign we need a union-community alliance that involves all those opposed to privatisation.
The NSW campaign against electricity privatisation, which brought down former premier Morris Iemma and forced a partial backdown, shows what is possible.
The QCU initiated rally at the ALP conference is a start — but it´s only a start.
A further step would be a mass rally and industrial action on and following June 16, the day of the state budget. This would send a strong message to the government of what is coming if it persists with the privatisations. If it won't back down, Bligh deserves to meet the same fate as Iemma.
Our campaign must continue until the Bligh government plan is shelved completely.
We need to kill off all privatisation.