Thursday, 23 February 2023

Privatisation policy

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:41): (67) I seek the action of the Minister for the State Electricity Commission to reconsider her constant talking down of privatisation in Victoria, especially given Labor’s long and proud history of selling public assets for the economic good of this state. If there is one thing that people hate, especially from politicians, it is hypocrisy, and that is what we are seeing from the Labor Party in Victoria. We see the Premier over and over again talking about ‘nasty Liberals’ and their privatisation. Like, last year we had the charade of the Minister for the State Electricity Commission furiously complaining in a tweet about how it was 30 years ago that the Liberals privatised our electricity – how terrible is that! Well, I am here to tell Labor: you should be proud of your privatisation legacy. As history shows – just check Hansard – it was just over 30 years ago that the government of Joan Kirner began the privatisation of power assets when they sold 51 per cent of Loy Yang B in 1992, and I ask those opposite to look that up.

If Labor hated privatisation so much, why did they do nothing during the Bracks and Brumby years to reverse the privatisation of the Kennett era? Labor of course sold the State Bank to Keating; Keating then flogged it off to the Commonwealth Bank. And who can forget it was the Gillard government, that great Labor government, who sold the last of the Telstra shares in 2011. What else have they privatised over this side of the house? How about the $9.7 billion lease of the Port of Melbourne in 2016 to pay for level crossings – they are going to need to lease it for another hundred years to pay for the cost blowouts there – or how about the sale of the Land Titles and Registry office in 2018, which the Victorian Treasurer described as an outstanding result. The Premier seems to have a different view of privatisation. In 2018 they also sold our share of the Snowy Hydro scheme. They have privatised even Federation Square, this government, and there was partial privatisation of VicRoads in a 40-year deal for $7.9 billion. We see a lot from the other side.

It was New South Wales Labor that were screaming over the privatisation of poles and wires in New South Wales, but who ended up buying the poles and wires in New South Wales? That would be the industry super funds, many of which happen to have former Labor MPs on the board. Indeed we have seen over and over again that when these things are sold they are sold to industry super funds with former Labor MPs on the boards. So I say to the Minister for the State Electricity Commission, and I say to the Premier, be proud of your legacy of privatisation. It runs long and deep in Labor history. I am proud of our history of privatisation in this place, as should you be.