#ThreeWaters: "The fear of privatisation is pathetic, weak and disappointing." #Luxon
"If it were up to me I would take water off of local government, I'd vest it in companies, owned directly by ratepayers, required to make a profit and transition income away from rates, towards user fees (even if it is a flat fee). The bogeyman of privatisation, so carefully cultivated in the 1990s, and spread through the education system and much of the media is so stultifying that even ACT is quiet on it, but I think water should be privatised by handing it to property owners....
" BUT... National is terrified of the 'p' word. 'The public ownership of water is not up for debate [says National]. Councils will not be able to propose water service models that involve privatisation [says National].'... Even Rob Muldoon once considered selling minority shareholdings in Air New Zealand. This is a pathetic surrender to left-wing scaremongering....
"The fear of privatisation is pathetic, weak and disappointing, when there should be no reason to not argue for the right of local authorities to choose privatisation if they wish."
~ Liberty Scott, from his post 'Is National's proposed water reform enough?'
1 comment:
I agree. But the only way we’ll ever overcome this irrational fear of privatisation is to calmly consider the best argument against it, and thoroughly dismiss it. The best argument is that any essential service left in the hands of a private monopolistic interest that’s motivated by profit and not their customers interests will exploit their customers because there’s no competition. I know there’s an answer to this objection, but the burden’s on the better people (us) to explain it in a way the average person can accept.
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