There’s been a lot of chat about privatisation recently, but what does it mean and who will benefit from it? Spoiler: not many.
Privatisation is the idea that the jobs the government currently does, like providing healthcare if you have a disease, accident compensation for if you hurt yourself at work, state housing for those who aren’t able to find a rental, and building roads should be done by private companies and we should have to pay for that ourselves instead of taxes.
But this come with issues, like how healthcare at the moment is publicly funded and publicly responsible - meaning there will always be some level of mandatory funding from the government, even if they cut it like this one. If it becomes privatised, the motive becomes solely profit instead of caring for people.
It would allow companies to put a price on the lives of people and turn them away, or put up the price.
David Seymour, who will be the Deputy Prime Minister later this year, suggested a $6,000 tax cut in order for Kiwis to pay for their own, private healthcare.
But this means that, as Kiwis rely on private interests, they can charge whatever they like.
Models like those in the US, which rely on this idea of privatisation, have people spending upwards of $15,739 NZD per person on private health insurance. This is more than 20% of the average US income of $66,089NZD per year on private healthcare alone.
Private healthcare might cost people $6,000 to begin with, but the private motive is profit - not looking after people - so they will increase the prices as more people become dependent.
The same idea goes for selling state houses, which are there for those who can’t afford private rentals through landlords. Forcing everybody to rely on private interests will turn us into America where it costs $30,000 to have a child without insurance, and $3,400 with.
America, where the infant mortality rate is 5.4 per 1,000 children, and they have the highest number of people in prison per capita and overall. Why do we aspire to become like them?
‘We’ aspire to privatise everything because our politicians will benefit.
Almost every MP has multiple properties, giving them an interest in keeping the rental market in favour of landlords. They all have private business interests in healthcare, construction, banking, finance, airports, and other things Kiwis rely on that are becoming ‘nice to haves’.
Privatisation serves the interests of the few, but it seems appealing because successive ‘left-wing’ governments like Labour don’t do nearly enough. Don’t buy in to the promise of privatisation, because it’s only us who will suffer - not them.
We could have free education, healthcare, housing, and public transport - but instead, our economy is held ransom by the wealthiest few.
The top 10% in this country hold half of the country’s wealth and subsequent influence. But this isn’t a fault: it’s how the system was designed to work.
Those with the most money buy our politicians. Millions of dollars are pumped into ACT and National every year in order to secure this power and even expand it.
David Seymour wants our health to be determined by big businesses, not public services
In David Seymour’s state of the nation speech, he pepole “need to get past squeamishness about privatisation,” as if it’s ever benefited the majority.
He wants Kiwis to get a tax cut to spend on private health insurance because the current system that he is refusing to improve doesn’t work well enough.
The thing about private insurance is that they control the prices and there is nothing we can do about it, so if they want more than your $6,000 per year - they’ll take it in a heartbeat.
Seymour and the coalition government are intentionally worsening the health system in and offering a ‘solution’ to the problem they caused.
Healthcare could be free, but instead the government give tax cuts to landlords, tobacco conglomerates, and mining companies.
Private healthcare is a profitable business, so forcing every Kiwi to rely solely on someone else’s financial interests means they’re going to make it as difficult as possible for you to get a fair deal.
He also reckoned the government would be better off selling all it’s state assets, including houses.
It means they can deny you care if you don’t pay enough, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The government’s job is not to maximise profit: their job is to ensure Kiwis have the best lives they can.
Now, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is saying he’s open to privatisation next election.
"We'd take [privatisation] to the election and it would be part of our programme that we'd want to talk about and be upfront with New Zealanders about".
It’s important to remember the business interests of our politicians, and that the now-former Minister for Health, Shane Reti, has a number of private business shares in healthcare. Other government, and opposition, MPs also have private shares that they would benefit from should healthcare, state housing, and other publicly-funded services be privatised.
Luxon, Seymour and parliament’s interests are clear. They’ll prioritise the profit of a few (including themselves) over the lives of the many, and they maintain a system that allows them to legislate against basic human rights.