MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (17:41): Obviously, I'm no communist. I think you all know that. I believe in capitalism, competition, private enterprise and the right of people to make some money without asking a government bureaucrat holding a clipboard for some permission.

But even I, the most committed free-market capitalist that you will meet in this place, understand that there are some things that you just do not sell, and Melbourne Water is one of them. You don't even talk about selling it. If the Victorian Labor government is seriously considering this, and I think it is, then it should just stop.

Stop right there in your tracks. Water is not just another commodity, and Melbourne Water is not just another business. What is it?

It's a natural monopoly. You don't sell the front door to your house and then act surprise when the new owner starts deciding who gets inside that house. And you do not sell control of your water, your electricity grid, your prime agricultural lands, your ports et cetera to a private company—and certainly not a foreign controlled one—and then congratulate yourself on the efficiency of the transaction.

As a Victorian, I do not want us to make the exact same mistakes that we've seen elsewhere in Australia—for example, in South Australia. They sold their power network. It is now foreign owned, and it was sold by a Liberal state government.

Do you know what? Some assets are different. As I said, water is not just another commodity.

Electricity is not just another business. Roads, ports and other critical infrastructure are arteries of a modern nation. Without water, there is no city, there is no agriculture, there is no industry—there is no economy, obviously.

When those arteries are controlled by people whose first obligation could potentially be to shareholders—overseas shareholders perhaps, or maybe even interests outside the country—what are we doing? We're creating a vulnerability that no accountant can put back on the balance sheet. There is also a basic difference between a competitive private market and an essential monopoly.

For example, if you don't like a supermarket, shop at another one. If you don't like an airline, choose another one; fly with them. But you cannot simply choose another water network.

You can't build yourself another electricity grid. These assets exist because generations of Australians built them, paid for them and also depend upon them. Governments of today should not assume that they have the moral right just to sell off what previous generations built and what future generations are going to need.

Obviously, this doesn't mean shutting ourselves off from the world. I believe in trading with the world. I believe in welcoming investment into Australia and into our states, but there's a difference between welcoming foreign investment and handing the keys to your house over to possibly a foreign controlled company.

We should cooperate with all. Tick. Sure.

We should trade with all. Tick. Sure.

But we absolutely must remain the masters of our own destiny. And governments need to stop treating essential public assets like a garage sale whenever they have mismanaged the budget, which, in my opinion, is going on here, because Victoria's broke. Sell the asset, take the cheque, spend the money and leave the next generation with nothing—that is not responsible economic management.

That is just akin to, I don't know, pawning the family silver or something. Once these assets are gone, there's no getting them back. It's really that simple.

The cheque gets spent, the budget hole remains, the infrastructure is gone, and the public is left paying for something that it once used to own. That is the great trick of this type of privatisation. When it's done badly, one generation may get some cash but every generation after that is just going to get the bill.

Now, how absurd is it that we sent our young men and women overseas to defend our sovereignty in multiple wars, two world wars, only to then surrender it with a pen for a cheque? A government that hands over ownership of its water, power and essential infrastructure is surrendering part of the practical control that makes sovereignty real. Melbourne Water needs to remain in Victorian hands, in Australian hands, and, more broadly than that, we should never allow the pursuit of short-term revenue to become the long-term surrender of our nation.