Voters in NSW followed the trend in other states and rejected the further sell-off of public assets

The NSW Labor victory in the recent state election – when it ruled out any further privatisation of state-owned assets – is the latest in a trend of state Labor parties winning big on anti-privatisation platforms, says the Centre for Future Work (CFW).

“At last November’s Victorian election, Victorian Labor pledged to recreate the State Electricity Commission (SEC). This promise was widely cited as the ‘cut-through’ issue that led to that party’s dominant victory,” said Charlie Joyce, a researcher at the CFW.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews called for electricity to be run for people and not for profit.

“Privatisation has failed. It’s failed pensioners, it’s failed families,” he said.

Earlier last year, South Australian Labor also returned to government, after only one term in opposition, pledging to return the recently privatised state railway network to public ownership.

In Queensland, Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has affirmed its opposition to privatisation and supported public ownership.

“Public ownership is popular – and it’s no mystery as to why. Publicly owned enterprises provide consistently cheaper and more reliable services because they are run for public good, not private profit. On the other hand, the owners of privatised services have strong incentives to cut corners and raise prices in pursuit of higher profit margins. This consistently leads to privatised services being more expensive and less reliable,” said Charlie Joyce.

‘Privatisation has failed. It’s failed pensioners, it’s failed families.’

—  Dan Andrews, Victorian Premier