Next on the chopping block?
In its decade in office, the federal Labor government has repeatedly demonstrated its lack of commitment to public ownership. Already partially privatised are the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, the manufacture of defence equipment and Telecom. When Cabinet sits down to business this week, it will be Australia Post on the chopping block.
Australia Post is predicting more than 10,000 jobs will go if Cabinet endorses communications minister David Beddall's plans on deregulation in the postal industry. This is in addition to the already agreed 4000 "voluntary early retirements". Postal workers are expecting as early as next February a program of redundancies, and this is even before Cabinet's decision on the future of Australia Post.
In anticipation of the big dollars flowing to transport companies, TNT and Mayne Nickless share prices climbed last week after Beddall's proposals became public.
Beddall's plan includes totally deregulating incoming and outgoing international mail, and halving Australia Post's domestic monopoly. The loss of up to $500 million in revenue on international and bulk mail, plus $150 million on the normal domestic service, would mean thousands of lost jobs. Eventually, it would also bring higher postage costs.
Services to rural areas will be hardest hit if the plan goes ahead. Currently, the revenue from the more profitable international and suburban postal service subsidises deliveries to country regions. If that money goes, so will the services to the more remote rural areas.
Australia Post management sent a last minute submission to Cabinet outlining its opposition. If Australia Post is to be defended against deregulation, it won't be by management. The postal union, at this stage, has not launched an active campaign against privatisation. Workers in the industry have been told for the last 10 years by the union leadership, "Support the accord and we'll stop privatisation".
Workers in industries already savaged by the Labor government have been weakened in their ability to fight back by the ALP/ACTU accord. Give-backs and trade-offs have been the only fruits of the Accord for the labour movement. Union solidarity has been fundamentally undermined, despite — or sometimes because of — union amalgamations. And it goes almost without saying that any struggle against privatisation can forget about ACTU backing.