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Competition has a lot to answer for

By Harry Throssell - posted Thursday, 20 March 2008


In the health field, why should a person be able to obtain immediate treatment for a life-threatening basal cell carcinoma because s/he can buy it, but a person without insurance or cash has to risk dying on a long public waiting list? Why should access to health depend on which state one happens to live in? It is noticeable that when a Member of Parliament needs specialist medical treatment s/he rarely joins the queue for state services.

We have a two-tier system, one for the haves and one for the have-nots, in a democracy rich in resources, both physical and human. If Cuba can create a good free national health service for all, without waiting lists, even exporting doctors, why cannot much wealthier Australia?

State governments have failed in their supply of health and housing services and they should be taken over by the Commonwealth.

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A population of only 21 million people should not have to support a federal government, two territory governments, six state governments, and many local authorities, all with representatives and public services on salaries, expense accounts, and the rest. Many parliamentary “debates” seem to consist of childishly insulting opponents and too often, according to media accounts, there are some MPs who use their opportunities for personal gain.

State governments should be abolished and their responsibilities transferred to either the Federal government or appropriate local authorities.

When a very rich country like Australia consistently fails to supply very basic services, it is difficult to avoid the suspicion it is not accidental. It raises the question whether it is part of a plan to transfer wealth to private companies, as suggested by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine. For example, limiting public health services so patients, desperate to avoid blindness or death, are forced to transfer to private specialists. Or not building public housing to force families to stay in the private market.

Klein sees this as the influence of economist Milton Friedman who fervently believed people should purchase what they need from private business and if they can’t afford it that’s tough. The influence of Friedman (a great supporter of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator) on the US political economy can be seen in the privatisation of the Iraq war, a conflict strongly supported by Australia.

We are at a dangerous time in history and Australia needs seriously to review its close relationship with USA.

The moves by US President George Bush, and his main adviser Dick Cheney, to transfer government functions to private concerns even includes fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Evidence for this is made clear not only by Klein but more recently by former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in The Three Trillion War where they set out highly detailed data showing not only how this continuing war has ruined the Iraq economy but has gone a long way towards also ruining the US economy:

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By now it is clear that the US invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake. Nearly 4,000 US troops have been killed , and more than 58,000 have been wounded … Miserable though Saddam Hussein’s regime was, life is actually worse for the Iraqi people now … The notion that invading Iraq would bring democracy and catalyze change in the Middle East now seems like a fantasy. When the full price of the warhas been paid, trillions of dollars will have been added to our national debt. Invading Iraq has also driven up oil prices. In these and other ways, the war has weakened our economy.

Le Monde diplomatique, in February 2008, published the world’s top ten military budgets. The highest by a long chalk is the US with US$623 billion, the next highest China with US$65 billion. Writer Chalmers Johnson argues America’s high investment in the military-industrial complex is the cause of global confidence in the US economy dropping to zero. It actually gets worse to the extent that US troops - those that survive - are leaving the government’s armed services and transferring to private “security” companies at a much higher salary, but not subject to government control, living in comparatively palatial conditions compared to the Iraqi people. All paid for by the American taxpayer.

These developments raise the suspicion the war has not been fought for the Iraq people but to establish a permanent new American colony in the Middle East.

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About the Author

Harry Throssell originally trained in social work in UK, taught at the University of Queensland for a decade in the 1960s and 70s, and since then has worked as a journalist. His blog Journospeak, can be found here.

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