AFTER reading “Joe’s surplus day slips away” (The Border Mail, December 13) I see Joe Hockey has encountered similar problems with the country’s finances that Wayne Swan experienced.
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The problems with the country’s finances is a the continual decline in revenue with successive governments since the Hawke-Keating government selling off public profitable enterprises.
If we had not sold public enterprises like the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, state banks, Qantas to name a few, we would not have a revenue problem.
All these organisations paid good dividends back to the Treasury now they are going to a select few and in salary packages of the managers of the now private organisations.
This government has just privatised Medibank Private, an organisation that has paid millions of dollars back into the Treasury finances.
Why would you do this when the country has a declining revenue base for a one-off gain of a few dollars?
Also, the NSW government is planning to sell off its profitable enterprise with the sale of Essential Energy.
I hope it doesn’t get the opportunity to do this, otherwise NSW will have the same revenue problem.
Perhaps governments need to stop this sale and start re-nationalising past government enterprises and creating more government enterprises.
Then the country would have a permanent revenue stream and not have to rely on market forces.
— PETER HOOD,
Albury
