The Victorian Greens have slammed the Victorian Labor Government for secretly planning to privatise or monetise Melbourne Water after secret cabinet documents revealed Labor has spent the past five years planning to bring private investors into Victoria’s publicly-owned water system.
The documents show Labor governments under both Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan pursued plans to raise billions of dollars by selling access to Melbourne Water assets to private investors.
The internal cabinet documents acknowledge the proposal would be deeply unpopular with Victorians. That hasn’t stopped Labor before.
Whether it’s the Port of Melbourne, public housing, the Land Titoes Office or now Melbourne Water, Labor has repeatedly ignored community opposition and tried to disguise privatisation behind increasingly creative (and more expensive) financial arrangements like long-term leases, public private partnerships and ground lease models.
The Greens said the revelations confirm Labor has been preparing to sell off essential public infrastructure behind closed doors while publicly insisting otherwise.
The Greens have introduced legislation into Parliament that would require parliamentary approval before any public assets or services can be privatised or outsourced.
As stated by the Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell:
“Privatising water is one of the worst ideas imaginable. It’ll lead to higher bills and put our clean water, health and communities at risk.
Privatising water has been a total disaster in the UK which has led to raw sewerage pumped into rivers and beaches, tap water outages and skyrocketing bills.
Labor has treated Victoria’s public assets like we’re having a garage sale. Labor have already sold off our port, our roads, public housing, Land Titles Office and VicRoads. Now they are coming for our water too with Labor spending the past five years engaging private consultants on working out how to privatise it.
Labor has totally lost their values when they keep selling off everything they can in Victoria. Public assets should stay in public hands, and water infrastructure is one of the most critical public assets we have.”
