MEDIA RELEASE FROM CRAIG INGRAM MP - MEMBER FOR GIPPSLAND EAST Issued: Wednesday 1 November 2006

Print

Rail, another privatisation failure: Ingram

The Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has described announcements today that both sides of politics will buy back the rail network from Pacific National as yet another example of the failure of the privatisation of essential public infrastructure.

“Both sides of politics are wedded to the stupidity of privatisation and public / private partnerships (PPPs),” Mr Ingram said.

“Billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money has been squandered chasing this philosophy.

“We have seen the Labor, Liberal and National parties sacrifice public owned services and government owned infrastructure on the privatisation altar.

“Over the past few years, country communities have seen governments forced to buy back hospitals and rail services. We have seen the impact on maintenance cuts, causing power failure on electricity lines; we have seen governments struggle to negotiate with rail operators and gas companies, all of which costs the taxpayers more.

“We have seen the debacle of the failed attempt to sell-off Snowy Hydro, which was fully supported by the Labor, Liberal and National parties in government.

“The main problem with privatisation is that the taxpayer still holds all of the liability, yet all of the profits are transferred to the private sector. It’s time all political parties abandoned the privatisation agenda.

“I welcome this public acknowledgment that privatisation of our rail system was a major mistake.

“Only Independent MPs have shown any consistency in defending essential public assets and services from the greed of the political parties.

“The rhetoric and grand standing from both sides of politics is galling, considering their pro-privatisation and PPP policies,” Mr Ingram concluded.