Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great regret that I stand to speak on this motion, which allows for the sale of the remaining portion of Snowy Hydro Ltd, an asset held dear by many Australians. From the surprisingly large number of people who have called my office in the last month begging that this asset not be sold, I know how many people will grieve for the loss of an asset which very much forms part of our identity as a nation. The Snowy Mountains hydro-electric system was built by people able to solve problems—people who did the hard things with great courage when they were necessary. It remains one of the great civil engineering achievements of the world.

A nation is not just made up of a group of individuals. We are bound together by the things that we share—the experiences we share over the days and weeks that pass, our sense of ourselves, our character, our history and the perceptions that we share of each other. Just as friendships grow over time into the future because of the things we share in the past and the things we do together today, so does a nation. The achievements that we honour also bind us together, and the development of the Snowy Mountains scheme is a part of that. Our experiences as a nation are as essential for our prosperity as our individual experiences.

Today we are agreeing to sell an important element of our national character. This action warrants very serious, lengthy debate. Unfortunately, of course, today we see a motion being put with unseemly haste. The opposition were advised of this on Monday night; we debate and vote on it today without the time for our communities or this House to debate it seriously or for stakeholders to make their case. This is incredible haste over what is a very important part of our national identity. This is not just an economic issue; this is not just about the money. This is also about allowing people to come to terms with and debate what is a very serious matter for a great many Australians.

It is particularly serious because many Australians do not share the belief of the supremacy of privatisation. There is considerable disagreement in the community and in this parliament about the notion that private is always better than public. There are many economists and businesspeople who question the validity of that and who believe that, at times, private is not necessarily better than public—that there are times when public ownership is unbelievably important.

Again, this is a debate we should be having. Tough decisions are not necessarily those that are made without regard for the views of others; strong decisions allow for debate, strong decisions allow for the views of others to be incorporated and a strong government would do the same. What we are seeing today, once again, is lazy government—a government that cannot be bothered to put its case to the public; a government that cannot be bothered or is too fearful to allow this debate to happen. We are seeing the government push this through as quickly as possible so that the debate will not happen, knowing that many Australians will not even find out that Snowy Hydro has been completely sold for many years to come—if at all. Without the strength to debate it, by this unseemly haste the government is completely hiding its actions to sneak it through as fast as possible without debate to hide it from as many Australians as possible and without allowing the stakeholders to debate this in the way that it should be debated.

Having said that, I do appreciate that the government is supporting the amendment Labor have moved, which at least seeks to protect the interests of some of the stakeholders. But I would just like to put it on record, as we act today to sell off a part of Australia’s national character, that I find it unbelievably offensive that I do not have the time, as the representative of the people of my electorate, to go back to them and allow them to put their case to me.

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