Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to speak against privatisation. We have seen ‑ and Mr Jenner gave some very good examples of the situation in the UK, where companies such as Serco and other companies that took over childcare facilities were scandalised. They not only made it more expensive, but were scandalised by maltreatment and were investigated. The winner of privatisation is always the company, it is never the people. What we have before us, with the concept of privatisation of both services and assets, is folly.
We have, and Mr Bayley has talked about, the Spirits ferry disaster, and the $1.6 billion forecast for the cost of the stadium disaster, which the Premier and the Labor Party is going in eyes wide shut, running headlong into economic oblivion. Despite all of the economists that have provided economic advice, this is something that both Labor and the Liberal Party want to ignore. I do not know how many things you could ignore, and it was just earlier today that the Shadow Treasurer was suggesting that, even if the TPC does decide against backing the stadium, you want to support it anyway.
Mr Willie – Why do you not just say you are against the team? You are against the team ‑ tell Tasmanians that.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER – The Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting.
Ms BURNET – We are talking about responsibility –
The SPEAKER – Mr Willie. No, shadow treasurer, I am sorry. That really is it. You are warned again. One more and you are out of here. Some latitude because of the nature of the debate, but no, not again.
Ms BURNET – The concept of just backing‑in something is really financially irresponsible. There is nothing more that can be said about that. It is total financial ruin that both Labor and Liberal are looking at having the state face. Here we have the answer with the Liberal Party, they want to privatise our services, and we know how poorly that worked last time. We know with TasRail’s situation where, eventually, the rail network, the rolling stock and all of the infrastructure needed to be bought back by the state. It wasn’t a good idea. The company, Asciano, went off with millions of dollars of Tasmania’s assets and money, and eventually shareholders and senior executives, when that company was bought out by Qube in 2016 for billions, there were no winners. The public did not win in relation to that. That was all about shareholders.
We have a situation where privatisation does not serve the people, and we have to ask the question: what’s up for sale? blank
What is the government looking at selling? Is it Devonport Airport, is it other TasPorts assets? What is on the table for sale and what is likely to happen with the assets? Will we have to buy the Devonport Airport back at some stage in the future should that be up for sale? There are lots of questions, and the government is not being honest and forthcoming with the people of Tasmania. They need to consider how this is going look and how they are really going to pay for the stadium.
By the way, the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium is on public land so it is going to be a bit of a privatisation takeover should the AFL go ahead with the stadium, whether it is a lease arrangement or whatever the case might be. They are effectively privatising public land. That area should be of the people. Mr Bayley talked this morning about the previous possibilities for Macquarie Point. We know the government ended up having to pay off a developer who was going to have an asset that probably would have been built by now, but we are still waiting for it.
There is significant concern that privatisation is on the government’s agenda. It does not serve the people of Tasmania well. We know debt will continue to rise until the government takes greater fiscal responsibility. We are not seeing any evidence of that. The government is not paying heed to any of the economists’ reports: Wells, Lawrence, Goddard, Gruen, Eslake and now the information found in the TPC’s interim report, which is a financial analysis. This is of great concern. We only know that deals are done and decisions made behind closed doors, which should be of great alarm to this parliament.
