Bulletin Board
Privatisation of ACC, roads, schools, hospitals
03 September 2008
Filed under: Union News
ACC, Roads, Schools, Hospitals - Where does it All End?
The growing list of state assets that National wants to privatise is a concern, CTU president Helen Kelly said this week.
“Workers will be worried to hear that National thinks it is okay for private companies to own our hospitals, schools, universities and polytechnics.
“Their proposal to have toll roads, possibly adding $50 a week to use public roads, will also not help at a time when workers are already facing higher food, petrol and housing costs.
“National has already said it will privatise ACC, putting at risk one of the best schemes in the world for the sake of more profit for Australian Insurance companies but it now appears that privatisation is a core policy plank of many of their policies.
“Our public services and state assets have been built up by generations of Kiwis. We saw what happened with the privatisation of rail, and we have seen the bill we have been left with to rebuild a decent rail service. New Zealand workers don’t support privatisation and these policy announcements will concern them,” Helen Kelly said.
One of New Zealand's education unions, NZEI Te Riu Roa, said this week that schools' ability to undertake teaching and learning should not be compromised by an outside party such as a private developer.
"The private developer would obviously put profit first which could bring huge uncertainty into education if they pulled out or sold off schools. In the long term, our children and their learning would be the losers," NZEI President Frances Nelson said.
Ms Nelson says schools and their buildings are at the heart of our communities and one of our most important public assets. She said while private developers building and owning schools would make the Government's books look good because the capital cost would be borne by the developer, the long term costs to the taxpayer of leasing it back from the developer could be higher.
[NZ CTU release]