The Australian Services Union’s global
affiliate Public Services International (PSI) has today released a new report
that reveals secret trade negotiations may threaten public services across the
globe, including in Australia. The ASU, as the principal union in local
government and utilities (water & energy) is alarmed at findings that not
only could public services be entirely privatised but that such privatisation
could be made irreversible.
With the resumption
of secret negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) in Geneva,
Switzerland, the campaign to protect the community from undermining of public
services has accelerated. The ASU is part of this global campaign by users of
public services and public service workers who are demanding the release of
more information on this sweeping trade deal and assurance that it will not
affect provision of any public services.
The PSI report
released today is the first study to examine these secret negotiations. It has
found that the agreement could hinder future governments from delivering vital
public services. This could include massive cost increases in the provision of
water and electricity. Local government services would also not be immune with
rate rises imminent to ensure profitability of private companies. Quality
standards are also at risk given the primary purpose of private companies is
profit, not quality service delivery.
In the new report
“TISA versus Public Services”, researchers highlight how the TISA would lock in
existing and any future privatisation of public services. The proposed
agreement could make it impossible for future governments to restore public
services to public control, even in cases where private service delivery has
failed.
The TISA would also
restrict a government’s ability to regulate key sectors including financial,
energy, telecommunications and cross-border data flows. The independence of
local government is also under fire, raising comparisons to the proposed GATS
(General Agreement on Trade in Services) which the ASU campaigned against some
years ago.
ASU Head of Public
Services and Assistant National Secretary Greg McLean OAM said, “The new report
has highlighted frightening elements of the TISA negotiations which could
seriously affect the quality of life of all Australians.”
“We have seen far
too many examples of privatisation of essential public services gone wrong in
Australia with hefty price hikes, reduction of both quality and service to the
community, as well as profits moving off shore. The prospect of irreversible
privatisation of public services cannot be tolerated!”
“As with other
trade agreements, the ASU is primarily concerned about the independence of
local government and state owned corporations. Quality standards must be
determined by the community being served, not by foreign based multinationals
that take profits away from local communities to be invested elsewhere, often
in another country."
“We will campaign
loudly to protect the Australian community, not only because our own ASU
members in local government, energy and water could bear the brunt of these
regressive changes, but because we believe that public services must remain in
public hands where duly elected members of governments are accountable for
them,” said Greg McLean.
Rosa Pavanelli,
General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), said, “This is an
attempt to secretly extend the most damaging parts of the infamous GATS
agreement that previously sparked global protests. The aim of public services
should not be to make profits for large multinational corporations. Ensuring
that failed privatisations can never be reversed is free market ideology gone
mad.”
Rosa Pavanelli
emphasised, “It is fundamentally undemocratic for parliaments to permanently
hand over the people’s democratic mandate to multinational companies.”
In London, Dave Prentis,
General Secretary of UNISON, spoke of people’s experience in the United
Kingdom, “Privatisation of public services has been a costly disaster. Tying
our Government’s hands to prevent us from dealing with failed privatisations
will give business the green light to take us all for an expensive ride.”
The ASU’s Greg
McLean said, “Our government must immediately release the text it is
negotiating so that members of the public can understand the potential effects
on our everyday lives.”
“Public services
are not simple commodities to be opened up to the market for trade and private
profit, they exist to provide communities with necessities such as water,
electricity, waste collection, social services, education, etc, on the basis of
need and rights to access. In fact, public services exist in the first place
because the market was incapable of delivering these services. Movement towards
any agreement that undermines our fundamental social contract must be stopped,”
concluded Greg McLean.
To ensure proper
public scrutiny the ASU will be calling upon Federal Government Ministers to
release all details in the TISA negotiations that could affect the delivery of
public services. Unions in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and more
are supporting the ASU call for open and transparent negotiations.
The report “TISA
versus Public Services” was written by Scott Sinclair, Canadian Centre for
Policy Alternatives, and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Institute of Political
Economy, Carleton University and can be downloaded at: www.world-psi.org/TISA
Media contact
Greg McLean, OAM,
ASU Assistant National Secretary - +61 (0) 419 796 801
