Page 2631 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 August 2019
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CIT and vocational training play a key role in the ACT economy. Nationally we have seen the negative impacts that privatisation of the VET sector can have with low quality qualifications and excessive student debts to name a few. Students have been trapped by slick sales teams with enticing offers and ended up with worthless degrees or no pathways to real jobs. CIT is an integral part of Canberra’s tertiary education sector and the ACT economy and we cannot allow it to be privatised.
We also recognise the importance of public transport staying in public hands to increase the accessibility and liveability of this growing city. We should be proud to have these fantastic and well-funded services at our doorstep and should never see them as just an opportunity to make profit. Public ownership ensures that these services are delivered where they are needed most, not just where they are most profitable. They are so much more than that; they are an integral part of the Canberra community economy and lifestyle.
Another key essential service the ACT government is prioritising is the provision of public health care. This is one of the most basic essential services, the privatisation of which is strongly condemned across Australia. The public provision of essential services such as health care ensure that those who may not be able to afford to pay can still access them.
With the decreasing trend in private health insurance participation it is more important than ever that the government continue to invest in this essential service to guarantee the accessibility of health care to all our community. That is why this government is building more nurse led walk-in centres and investing more in our health system.
These essential services should not be run with profit as the primary motive, as is the case under privatisation. They are called essential services for a reason: they are essential to a well-functioning community regardless of their profit margin. To run these services in a for-profit manner completely undermines the core principle that the role of the government is to provide basic services to its constituents.
Improvements to the healthcare system are not and should not be governed by how much profit something is likely to make. Further, the federal Liberal government’s outsourcing of the public service by bringing in contractors and consultants is deeply problematic in Canberra. Our community has a proud history of working in the public service and this outsourcing undermines that work.
The continued outsourcing of public service work is detrimental to our workforce in both the short and long term, resulting in a lack of upskilling, training and institutional knowledge being passed on. The long-term ramifications of this outsourcing of what should be an essential public service are extremely troubling.
The ACT has a number of significant essential services that have remained in public hands. From CIT to the provision of transport to our world-class healthcare system, Canberra’s community and economy are centred around the public provision of essential services. This government is committed to continuing to provide these public services where they are needed most rather than where they are most profitable. We
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