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Privatisation

Quality public services are the foundation of democratic societies and successful economies. They ensure that everyone has equal access to vital services, including as health care, education, electricity, clean water and sanitation. When these services are privatised, maximizing corporate profits replaces the public interest as the driving force. Privatisation is a dangerous trend that must be reversed.

Australia's push to private health care is making citizens sick

14 March 2017

The Australian health care system is often projected as one of the most efficient and effective in the world, with its universal Medicare system. Medicare is a universal insurance scheme that initially allowed free healthcare at point of access, regardless of income; funded through the country’s taxation system.

Privatization Watch - 02/2017

09 March 2017

An overview of global trends in privatization of public services. Privatization Watch - Issue 02/2017

From public good to profit margin: how privatisation is failing our communities

06 March 2017
Photograph: Terry Vine/Getty Images/Blend Images

David Hetherington, Chair of the People's Inquiry, has penned an article for the Guardian based on what he learned from traveling around Australia speaking to communities about the impact of privatisation. When institutions that fulfil a deeply human function – teaching, caring for people at their most vulnerable moments – are forced to behave like businesses, everyone loses.

Trade Unions and campaigners around the world boycott World Bank consultation on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

28 February 2017

Trade Unions and campaigners around the world accuse the World Bank of encouraging dangerous hidden debts. The boycott on the World Bank consultation on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) was launched after the World Bank ignored repeated calls to stop promoting PPPs that contain dangerous hidden debts. Most governments leave these costs out of the accounting books, which can lead to crippling hidden debt – especially damaging for world’s poorest countries.

Waste collection in Canada: When private goes public – community wins

28 February 2017
Conception Bay South garbage collection

Five years ago, the town of Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador, was facing problems with its privatized solid waste collection. Complaints were on the rise, and costs were headed in the same direction. In 2011, the town council voted to bring the service in house, ending 30 years of contracting-out.

In the prison where the massacre took place, conditions are bad for the prisoners and precarious for the staff

21 February 2017

The company managing the prison has stated that it does not exercise police powers of enforcement inside the Manaus prison, however this task is stipulated in the contract signed with the government of the state of Amazonas and was observed during visits made by human rights advocates.

Why privatization simply aggravates the crisis in Brazilian prisons

21 February 2017

The mass slaughter that took place earlier this year in a prison in northern Brazil shows that when prisons are managed by private companies it does not solve the problem but rather contributes to their deterioration.