The Guardian 7 June, 2006
Editorial
The Snowy manipulation
The surprise decision of the Prime Minister to abandon the sale of the Federal Government’s stake of 13 percent in the Snowy hydro-electric grid has nothing to do with any concern for the environment or some latter-day conversion to the merits of public ownership. Nor is it a wish to preserve an "icon" in public hands or a newly found willingness to listen to public opinion.
It is an opportunist manipulation which, while allowing him to pose as having concern for the environment and a defender of public ownership, has struck a very heavy blow at the economies of the NSW and Victorian State Labor Governments. With elections coming up next year in NSW the Iemma State Government may find it difficult to cope with the financial consequences. With 42 percent of the shares held by the NSW Government on behalf of the people of NSW it intended to sell out to private enterprise without even bothering to ask the opinion of the public shareholders, that is, the people of NSW. The same goes for the government of Victoria. The State Labor Governments are therefore paying the price for their own opportunist and unprincipled decision to privatise it.
The NSW Government had been the front-runner in the privatisation proposal. It has also been a front-runner in entering into disastrous public/private partnerships. Sydney’s cross city tunnel is the most publicised, but in other such deals millions of dollars of public money has been squandered and poured into the pockets of "developers" of one kind or another. In return, the developers have poured millions of dollars as "donations" into the coffers of the NSW State Labor Party. A very comfortable relationship indeed!
Meanwhile, Howard has paid them out for their own brand of opportunism and unprincipled behaviour. But it only shows that Howard is a smarter opportunist than they.
If Howard is such a good listener as his supporters pretend, and is influenced by majority public opinion he would come out now and abandon the privatisation of Telstra and Medibank Private. But nothing like that is going to happen. He would not have rushed to war in Iraq if he had listened to the majority view of public opinion.
And on the environment, the Howard Government continues to refuse to ratify the Kyoto protocols. A number of schemes have been announced concerning the environment but nothing has significantly changed. The emission of carbon dioxide continues to increase.
A commercial scheme has been adopted in relation to the Murray/Darling basin but the ability to buy and sell water does not add a single litre to its availability. Nothing is allowed to stand in the way of the licences already issued to the water-guzzling cotton farms on the upper reaches of the Darling River.
The abandonment of the privatisation of the Snowy is now being associated by some with a proposal that the Federal Government should take control of all Australian water resources. Would they then be privatised?
The same rush for centralised control is behind the IR legislation by which all industrial relations are to become in time a federal matter.
In the area of finances the introduction of the GST, its payment to the States on condition that they abandon a number of State taxes ultimately opens the door to the federal control over all national finances. The Federal Government’s smart tactic also led the Labor Party to abandon all opposition to the iniquitous GST.
If the State Labor Governments are to avoid becoming irrelevant they must differentiate from the Liberals and that means abandoning privatisaton and private/public partnerships. On the all-important issue for workers — the IR legislation — it must mean backing the workers and trade unions on the streets. The same goes for Federal Labor.
Half-hearted, verbal lip service and legal appeals are not enough against the determined and powerful corporations who are already moving in for the kill. If Howard’s rush is to be stopped much more combative and principled, pro-people policies have to be adopted.
In the meantime, Howard’s decision regarding the Snowy is nothing more than a dishonest and opportunist manipulation and it should be seen for what it is.