Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] People are sick of privatisation. People are sick of seeing our essential services sold off to be run by big corporations making billions of dollars of profit out of us, the public. People are sick of seeing their public services being forced to run at a profit instead of being allowed to run for the public good. We've seen it with electricity, where part of Australia's electricity network is now owned by companies registered in the Cayman Islands. We've seen it with TAFE, where dodgy private providers get millions of dollars that should be going to TAFE. We've seen it with our banks and the selling off of a publicly owned bank. We've seen it in aged care, where people have died because corporations have put profit ahead of care. And now we're seeing it with Australia Post, where what should be an essential service is being forced to run at a profit, where we're seeing slow delivery times, posties being cut back and that the executives can give each other $20,000 Cartier watches as presents. And now some are saying that the answer is to go further and to privatise Australia Post.

The government must rule out privatising Australia Post. This is why the Greens have declared war on privatisation, why we're going to push for a once-in-a-generation inquiry into the failures of corporatisation and privatisation under both Labor and Liberal governments and why we will push for public services to be essential services back into public ownership. Energy, TAFE, Australia Post—it has to remain in public hands, run for the public good, not for a profit.