Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens are very concerned about trends in government that include an arbitrary cap on Public Service staffing numbers, permanent Public Service jobs replaced by contracting out through labour hire firms and privatisation by stealth through transfer of service delivery to the private sector, and so we will support this motion. But those things did not happen by accident; they are the inevitable end result of the neoliberalism that began under Labor four decades ago and has continued under the Liberals. The Greens will move today for a genuine and comprehensive inquiry into the failings of privatisation, and we understand Labor will not be supporting our inquiry. It's time for Labor to stop hiding from its shameful neoliberal record, which includes the privatisation of Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank and the final tranche of Telstra. Corporatisation and privatisation will only end when the major parties abandon neoliberalism and admit that it has not worked.

Question agreed to.