As in a Shakespearian play, we are witnessing the demise of an old king whose rule has been based on lies, deceit and misery. Those seeking to bring about changes are rushing to undermine the crumbling foundations of the King’s stronghold. They know they don’t have the power required for direct confrontation, having suffered decades of being besieged. But they do have the skills, experience and strategy to win. Provided they act in time. There are signs the stronghold’s walls are cracking, but the King’s allies are rallying ready to rebuild. In 2016, according to businessinsider.com.au, Joseph Stiglitz stated that neoliberalism was on its last legs, the consensus surrounding it having come to an end1. The events leading to this apparent weakness are well documented; the global financial crises (GFC) exposed the deceit and precariousness of neoliberalism and created the stage upon which the actors entered. The waves of austerity that followed the GFC have been matched by the relentless exposure of growing inequity2. For public sector unions the effects of neoliberalism have been close to devastating. This free market ideology, driven through trade and investment agreements and deregulation, have resulted in the privatisation of services and infrastructure whilst austerity measures have resulted in the loss of job security, positions, wage suppression and the loss of entitlements. Tax settings favourable to corporations were meant to ‘trickle down’ into more jobs and wealth for the community, but they never have. Instead we’re left with an eroded tax base that makes it hard to provide decent public services, and job insecurity and inequality are rising. For decades public sector unions have been speaking out about the effects of neoliberalism, however their arguments often failed to gain traction. With the growing exposure of inequity, and increasing transparency of business practises, however, there is now a growing audience for an alternative to neoliberalism. Indeed, there is a growing audience for an alternative to capitalism3,4. The analogy of neoliberalism as an old king is instructive given the evolution of the fight for gender equality has positively decreased the tolerance for sexism. Reports identify that the impact of privatisation is greatest on women5 and that the majority of public sector workers in Australia are women6. Within these contexts there is a corresponding reawakening of the need for, and the need to protect, publically owned and run services and infrastructure. Some public services and infrastructure in Australia are world renowned, such as the public health system backed by Medicare, our universal health insurance system used to ensure affordable, if not free, access to services. A government approach to pharmaceuticals (the PBS and PAB) ensures a collective affordability of effective and efficient medicines. Primary and secondary school education is technically free. But even in these examples user co-pays and commercialisation, are seeing affordability slipping. Indeed, privatisation and commercialisation in Australia have seen many services and infrastructure go to the private sector or accessed through a commercial basis. Whilst the privatisation front was opened by a Labor government, conservative governments have pursued it with vigour. Privatisation examples include the sale of the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Telstra (telecommunications), shipping, and energy generation and distribution. There have been major service-delivery privatisations which have caused huge issues for vulnerable communities, such as the privatisation of the Commonwealth Employment Service and the fracturing of services to job-seekers. Commercialisation has seen free tertiary education convert to AUD$100,000 degrees paid through student loans. Our post-GFC world has seen privatisation back on the agenda. To use a colloquialism; we’ve just about sold off the farm. Between 2016 and 2017 a group of public sector unions in Australia funded a public inquiry into the effects of privatisation. The aim of the inquiry was to look at the impact of privatisation on communities. The report, Taking Back Control7, found that, for our communities, there is decreased access to public services and a decrease in quality when services are obtained. Our communities are struggling to enact effective accountability when services fail whilst at the same time those most vulnerable within our societies are repeatedly, and wrongly, demonised for being the cause of societal woes...
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Open Access
Jan 31, 2019
Saeed S Abduljalil Soliman + 1
