The State: Loose Labor lips releases the Liberal’s little monster

It was inner thought of the State Government that became not so secret. The scary threat of privatisation of SA’s rail networks has been let loose in the last days of the federal election campaign.

Like a monster under the bed, the shapeless and scary threat of privatisation of the state’s rail networks has been let loose in the final days of the federal election campaign, while the State Government struggles to map out detail of a now-not-so-secret plan.

Under extended questioning in State Parliament this week, Transport Minister Stephan Knoll gave the long answer about the many ways in which the operation of the system could be changed in the coming years and an update on options that are currently on the table.

Then he got dragged into the rule-in-rule-out game in a direct question on “privatisation”, and the evasion gave Labor all it needed.

In a subsequent statement to The Advertiser, Mr Knoll’s office left a gap wide enough to drive a drive a diesel train through, saying: “Ever since we came to government, we’ve been looking at ideas from across the globe to improve our public transport network,” a spokesman said.

“We are still early on in the process to reform our public transport network and no decisions have been made.”

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With the Government unable to clearly explain what is coming down the track, Labor speedily grabbed its chance to unhelpfully fill in the gaps.

In modern Australian politics generally, and perhaps SA more so, the idea of privatisation has become poison.

While the liberation of the banking sector during the Hawke-Keating era continues to be celebrated as a move that “modernised” the economy, the global financial crisis and a growing contemporary sense that companies build their profits at the expense of the wages paid to average punters have swung the pendulum of public sentiment back the other way.

And, in SA, the sale of ETSA continues to loom large and combines with the lived experience of high bills to convince many voters that privatisation has not served their interests.

Labor has hit railway stations across the city, with a particular focus on the federal marginal seat of Boothby, warning commuters to “stop the Liberal sell-off of our trains” in the critical final days of the campaign.

It sounds like the Liberals are preparing to ship the carriages off to whoever bought ETSA, and smelt down the rails for scrap.

And while the Government hasn’t said that’s what they’re doing, they also haven’t ruled it out. Wink, wink, etc.

It’s possible the Government will decide on no change to the current system, or repeat the outsourcing of operations in exactly the same way that it already happens with buses.

Either would be a relatively simpler sell and with a clearly defined model, there is some chance the Government could eventually achieve a better or similar service quality at less cost, which it what it says will be the guiding principle of any change.

Whatever the final decision, the imagined is very likely to be much worse than the final reality.

When commuters were asked in vox pops this week what they thought of the general concept of privatised rail, the response was uniform.

They figured it must mean “profits over people” and was a stinker.

Labor doesn’t come to the argument with clean hands.

In the last Parliament, it had a massive privatisation agenda that pumped more than $4 billion into the Budget as Motor Accident Commission assets were flogged off and the Lands Titles Office’s operations outsourced.

But it was politically cunning in the privatisations that it chose.

They were options that delivered maximum financial gain for minimal political gain. Most were operations that few voters come into direct contact with or have any particular passion for.

The one exception, selling off forest harvesting rights in the South-East, was in a part of the state where they’ll never vote Labor anyway.

Boothby is in a part of the state with an unusual affinity for the rail network. Running from Glenelg down to Marino and across to Belair after a redraw, it has three train lines as well as the tram which many people use daily on their way to work.

Liberals were buoyed at the beginning of the week by the Advertiser-YouGov Galaxy poll that placed incumbent MP Nicolle Flint ahead of Labor at 53-47, and put a lot of their campaign success to date down to a solid record on transport infrastructure.

Ms Flint has strongly associated herself with the Oaklands Crossing upgrade that will fix one of the area’s most infuriating bottlenecks, and the Federal Budget promised money to also remove the Hove level crossing.

Strategists on both sides think the race is extremely close and the poll points to the high end result possible for the Liberals. With the scare of a rail sale running through the electorate, Labor is closing with momentum.

If Labor succeeds in an against-the-odds upset, the Liberals’ autopsy will doubtless focus on what went down in Question Time on Tuesday.

But even if the Liberals survive this weekend unscathed, the can of worms remains open on the table.

State Labor has already done groundwork in highlighting the downsides of bus route cuts and Service SA centre closures, a campaign that can neatly roll into proclaiming the perils of rail privatisation.

Until the Government has an answer on what it plans to do, which could take months, it remains vulnerable to all that lurks in the shadows.