On 22 Sep 2022, at 10:32, TP historyworks@...> wrote:
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> There's an awful lot of public confusion about privatisation reflected in these letters - as well as deliberate confusion created by certain political parties, one of which was hypocritically into privatisation itself when last in government. Muddying the waters even further are external issues dragged into the debate that have nothing to do with privatisation.
Bullshit. Privatisation is bad whoever does it and however it is done. No confusion in understanding that corporate bludgers are just clipping the ticket while putting the boot into the workforce.
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> There's asset privatisation and there's operational franchising to private contractors. The former is generally a more recent issue, the latter has been going on all around the world since time immemorial and doesn't affect ownership of the assets by governments. Naturally, opponents of operational contracting just love to blend the issues of asset sales and operational franchising in order to mislead voters and, of course, the more gullible fall for it, especially SMH readers it seems. If these readers were actually given accurate information by their media of choice, rather than uncritically reproducing political press releases, we mightn't be reading such daft correspondence.
More bullshit. Operational franchising is about attacking working conditions, by imposing external, know nothing managerialist goons working for grifting rent seeker corporations that only exist to drive down the pre-existing public sector working conditions - you have said so yourself.
These imposed from outside, parasitic, micromanaging straw bosses are the very definition of “bullshit jobs” - nothing else.
Asset privatisation is kleptocratic pillaging of the public commons.
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> The externality that has nothing to do with franchising is the alleged "butchering" of SE Sydney bus routes. The average smart tram enthusiast knows that the reason for the bus route review was the advent of CSELR and the associated intention to divert bus passengers to the light rail, something that was flagged right at the beginning of the project, way back. The furious opposition to this that was whipped up in the Labor electorates of SE Sydney was based largely on irrational hatred of trams, not helped, admittedly, by the bumbling slow operation (which has subsequently got faster) that alienated commuters when they were forced to exchange between bus and tram. As a result of that fury, we now have a compromise in which some bus routes still go into the city. This muddled outcome is all down to TfNSW and nothing to do with who operates the services.
Delusion and bullshit. Bus routes such as the 370 and 418 were cut and gutted to conform the new privatised franchise boundaries, and these cuts are universally reviled by the users, who used to be able to make cross suburban journeys without having to change. When younger (they are all adults now) my kids could safely travel from Leichhardt to Coogee beach on one bus, the 370, easily and without hassle. Not any more. The 418 ran Burwood to Kingsford, also now cut in half at Sydenham.
These truncated routes have nothing to do with anything but the contrived private franchise sectors imposed by the bogus slicing and dicing of the bus network, and nothing to do with “irrational hatred of trams”.
Ah, but what do I know?
I'm just a local user of these increasingly unreliable and unpunctual services (Parramatta Rd/Liverpool Rd routes 461, 480, 483 have appalling timekeeping, random missed runs, etc) not fatuously pontificating about them from my tabernacle of ideological hubris in Nowra. It’s telling that out of service buses have “We Are Now Hiring” scrolling across the destination signs because so many staff have left and no-one wants to work under the increasingly shitty working conditions on offer for the really shitty job of driving buses.
It’s also a joke how Pencil Neck Parrothead and the Fat Controller were hyperventilating about rail staff turning off the Opal readers when on around 20% of the buses I catch the card readers aren’t working.
Like I said, roll on March 25 next year. Anything would be better than this horde of defecating chimps smearing their ideological faeces over everything.
Tony
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> Tony P
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> On Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 09:19:54 UTC+10a...@... http://aapt.net.au/ wrote:
> Privatisation deals are never for the public good
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> The privatisation of many buses may be confronting but it is the other privatised deals that are having a far wider effect (“MPs push to roll back privatisation https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/abject-failure-parliament-committee-want-to-roll-back-sydney-bus-privatisation-20220920-p5bjky.html”, September 21). From investment corps, wharves, insurance companies, government cleaning, banks, schools, hospitals, energy and power utilities, TAB and lotteries, ports, water and electricity, the list is long and profits high. The state governments have relinquished control of major utilities for short-term profit and consequently people are suffering from higher bills and poorer service. The competition promised never eventuated and taxpayers have been well and truly duped. Janice Creenaune, Austinmer
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> The political stoush over Sydney’s privatised buses highlights what is wrong with oppositional or partisan politics in this country. Private bus lines need to be put back in public hands as private bus companies are only concerned with maximising their profits and are unconcerned about the public good. It is a no-brainer that a big city such as Sydney should get private cars off the road and encourage everyone to use public transport. We would all breathe easier and be more relaxed if this were the case. Furthermore, our cost of living would fall. I don’t often agree with Xi Jinping but his viewpoint on this issue – that Western politicians mislead public opinion and waste energy needlessly on ideological debate – is surely right. Geoff Black, Caves Beach
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> Before they privatised the buses, the government butchered the routes. This ideologically driven exercise means no direct bus from Randwick or Coogee gets you closer to the CBD than Museum station, nor anything from the north-east of the CBD gets you home. Whoever benefited, it wasn’t the public. Michael Berg, Randwick
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> The NSW transport minister claims “politics” is behind criticism of NSW transport privatisations. In fact, it’s his political party’s free market ideology and politics that are behind the privatisations of public assets in the first place. The profit motive will never deliver goods and services that all members of society can rely on. That’s why we don’t have privatised police, military, courts of justice, water, etc. Where we have privatised public assets such as schools, hospitals and toll roads, etc, they no longer serve the public but end up serving the wealthy. David McMaster, Mosman
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> Until the state government and the private operators realise the public dislikes playing musical bus chairs when travelling from A to B, they will continue to C declining patronage. It’s as simple as ABC. Bob Scott, Eastlake
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