The privatisation craze began in earnest in Australia in the early 1990s. Governments—state and federal, Labor and Coalition—were on board from the beginning, and over the following three decades more and more of Australia’s most important, and valuable, public assets have been sold off.

Australia’s Medicare was once the envy of the world. Now after years of cuts, it’s a shell of its former self. Of course, now we have all sorts of problems happening caused by understaffing and overworking in an underfunded system, but of course, the narrative is “public systems suck” instead of the truth that privatization is the cause. All this to push people onto health insurance and make our healthcare system as bad as America’s. Money for rich insurance companies while the rest of us rot. All during a pandemic no less. Sad days.