ACCC chairman Sims argues the benefits of privatisation
An article in this morning's Australian Financial Review, based on an interview with Mr Sims, says that he has called for Federal Government to sell Medibank Private and Australia Post.
However, Mr Sims has told News Radio that he was not advocating for the sale of particular Government-owned businesses.
"Australia Post, that's really an issue for government, I was making a general point this morning, and I'll really leave it at that," he told News Radio's Marius Benson.
"I think there are direct experiences you can draw from the energy sector, but I've really got no parallel from which to comment on Australia Post, or Medibank Private for that matter.
"Mr Sims adds, however, that the only good reason for government ownership is because it has particular social objectives in mind.
"If all you're after is maximum efficiency then there's no question that you'd have those assets owned by the private sector," he argued.
"If you're continuing to own them by government, then that's because you've got some social objective to achieve."If you have a social objective, it's worth specifying what that is, and I suspect there's probably more direct ways to achieve that social objective".
Martin O'Nea, the national assistant secretary of the Communication Workers Union says " Australia Post hasreturned more than $800 million in dividends to taxpayers over the past three years.
He also warns that Australia Post's less profitable but socially useful services, such as relatively affordable and timely mail and parcel deliveries to rural and regional Australia, would likely suffer if it was privatised
."With a privatised Australia Post, would them services that people have seen in the past three years remain the same?" Mr O'Nea asked rhetorically."We'd venture that the experience that regional and rural Australia have had with privatisation in the past would leave them to believe that it certainly wouldn't.
"That is a view shared by the Post Office Agents Association Limited, which represents the owners and operators of licensed post offices, which make up around 75 per cent of Australia Post's network.
"A privatised postal operator would focus on the main population centres at the expense of customers in rural Australia," said its chief executive Ian Kerr.
The association says it received assurances from both major parties ahead of last year's federal election that neither had plans to privatise Australia Post.
The Government has launched a scoping study into the possible sale of Medibank Private, which is due to report next month.
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Poor Aussies, so far in debt we'll have to sell off our remaining assets soon, and then how will we repay our loans if all our jobs go overseas or to foreign workers?
