Privatisation, outsourcing and other CONS!

Privatisation, outsourcing and other CONS!

It ain’t rocket science!

There are only two real options when it comes to privatisation of public utilities and social and medical services and service providers:

1. That services are reduced.
2. That costs are increased

And of course the most experienced consequence is a combination of both   😯

That’s why when idiots like Hockey and Abbott talk of running government as a business, or trying to relate the nations budget to a household budget, they are so wrong!

The realities of business is that it exists to make a profit   😯   , whereas government is there primarily to provide a vision/policy framework for the future direction for the country   😯   and collect taxes   😉    and use that revenue stream, to provide badly needed infrastructure for the future of the country, and services for the citizenry, many of which (Infrastructure and services that is   😉   ) will never be profitable.

The problem with the ideologically driven Abbott and his ilk, is that they really don’t care about efficiencies– though they are quick to call a cut, an “Efficiency Dividend”, when it’s their cut   😈   – they are only concerned with profits, and completely ignore the fact that to sell something that is inherently unprofitable, means they must then commit us to paying compensation to the purchaser, in perpetuity.

So why sell it at all?

Well the LNP choose to call it asset recycling… WTF?   🙄

So we sell off assets that are profitable, and returning a good dividend to general revenue, for a quick cash injection, so that they can then use the money (OUR money) to partner with private developers to build… Roads and tunnels  😯  , which not only will we never own, but even if they are needed (which, in many cases, is doubtful), we will be paying tolls on them, to further strain our already burgeoning cost of living, whilst further boosting the coffers of the already obscenely  rich.   😡

So in simple terms, they sell a valuable state owned assets, to improve the lot of a few, already overstuffed and, in at least some cases, corrupt mates/LNP donors, at our expense!

Or in the case of Newman in QLD, he knows that no one wants to sell assets, so he’s treating the QLD’ers to the old LNP swindle of saying we’ll “lease” the assets for 99 years, and at the end of the lease period we’ll still own the assets… WTF?

The fact that we’ll have to pay billions of $’s for all upgrades needed over the 99 year life of the lease, are conveniently overlooked   😯   and we all know how well our service assets have been maintained so far ( and to gain some perspective, think about how much we have been charged for the “gold plating” of our mainly “Privatised” electricity grid, and then ask the relevant question… “Will the upgrades last for 99 years, or will they need to be upgraded again, even discounting the distinct possibility that technological advances will render most current systems obsolete, long before the end of the century?”

Now we have all heard, ad-infinitum, about the “Debt and deficit disaster”, which is the justification for them having an assets fire sale/ leasing/recycling, and I’m sure that we’ve also heard them use the term… “The nations credit card”, which is used for no other reason than to scare the crap out of the unthinking masses, with no basis in fact   😯

The truth is that while we all know of credit cards that have interest rates, well in excess of 20%, which is indeed scary, the term “Nations Mortgage” would be much closer to the mark when referring to government debt, although that’s still overblown, as the average mortgage rate is currently somewhere around 5 %   😯   while the government, with its three AAA credit ratings,  courtesy of the previous administration, is paying somewhere around 2.5%  on the money they borrow.   😯

Now I’m no economist   😯   , but it seems to me that if an asset is posting returns to the government of more than 2.5%, and the government can borrow money at 2.5% or less, IMHO the smart thing to do would be to borrow the money and let the asset remain publicly owned.

Likewise, if we sell an unprofitable asset, like public transport infrastructure for example and then have to to pay more than a 2.5% subsidy to make it a viable (read profitable) purchase/lease, then again, IMHO,  we’re better off borrowing the money and keeping the asset   😉

Now this may be somewhat simplistic, but the point is, that I know that I and many others, would love to only be paying 2.5% interest on the mortgage, and especially the credit cards!   😉

And the truth is that for Australia, the level of debt that we had was well below that of our trading partners, and easily serviced, until Abbott and Hockey laid their grubby mitts on the keys to treasury.   👿

A recent example of outsourcing stupidity, was highlighted with the report on Newman’s outsourcing of court transcription that according to their own plant;

Tim Carmody, Queensland’s chief justice, says: ‘Sometimes matters are transcribed incorrectly or not at all’ since the government outsourced the service to Auscript, forcing judges to go back to audio recordings

And;

The judge’s criticism – contained in the supreme court’s annual report 2013-14 tabled in parliament on 19 December – followed state opposition claims that the cost of court transcripts had jumped by 73% after privatisation.

 The Guardian

We also had our own experience of Newman’s stupid policy direction, as my BI was sent to Caloundra hospital last Monday, only to be sent to the new Sunshine Coast private hospital, where he spent three nights in a single room (which is all they have, apparently), and costing probably twice as much as a bed in a public hospital (if one was available?)

Now while Newman/Abbott’s support for the private health industry provides a nice little profit stream for such as Macquarie Health, the value for money, for the state is dubious at best!

And while on the subject of the most despicable of right wing nut-jobs, second only to Abbott himself; we now come to the QLD “snap” election, and the “snap”  having different meanings;

1. Snap being the speed with which it was called, so as to take advantage of the people being still in holiday mode, and hopefully less engaged, and more forgiving… Good luck with that one, Newman you arse!   😯
2. Snap with Abbott on his efforts to run the country into the ground with their economic, policy and environmental incompetence and corruption!  😈
3. Snap with Abbott on their efforts to sell off the family farm, to their supporters/donors, by “asset recycling”, outsourcing and general policy stupidity (other cons   😯   )!   🙄
4. Snap with Abbott in doing whatever it takes to maintain power at any cost… To us!   😡
5. Snap, as in the Australian tea party fascists have… SNAPPED!   😯

But i digress   😉

So as the new year settles in, and we are faced with voting decisions in QLD and NSW, in the first quarter and with any luck a DD for Abbott, before the year’s out (?)   the things to remember are;

1. You can’t believe a word the LNP say!   😯
2. They don’t  value our country or way of life, except to put a value on them for the sake of a prospective buyer, and to bolster their budget bottom line.   😈
3. The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour  (Refer to #1)   😉
4. By their very nature, and the fact that they are “money” focused and driven, LNP governments are inherently corrupt!   😯
5. Whenever an LNP politician quotes “The nations/national interest”, they really mean blatant self interest.  (refer to #1 and #4)   😉
6. If you’re basing your voting intention on what you’ve been fed by Murdoch and the MSM, then the chances are you’ve been lied to, or at the very least mislead!   😈
7. If you think that investing the proceeds of “asset recycling” in support of overseas interests like Adani, (which have been implicated in corrupt practices in the past, and already rejected by the banks and lending institutions, as they deem the Galilee Basin project un-viable, due to the free falling price of, and  world wide demand for coal!   🙄   ) is good, then… you must be either a Liberal, an Adani executive or employee, all of the above, or just plain bat shit crazy!   😯
8. And the one thing that we can be absolutely 100% sure of is that a vote for any LNP government, state or federal is a vote for:

Privatisation, outsourcing and other CONS!