Jeff Kennett's Legacy

The above pictures of Jeff Kennett and Unionists were taken outside Melbourne radio station 3AW in 1998. Kennett had just butchered Workers Compensation in favour of the insurance companies. The police had barged through our peaceful barbeque protest. Macca the Tasmanian Sparkie/Electrician was knocked to the ground, the second photo shows me helping him up.

As someone who grew up in Melbourne, (Brunswick long before the yuppies moved in), I'm amazed by the level of privatisation that Kennett carried out. Also by other state ALP governments that have followed Kennett’s lead in privatising public assets. And the gutless attitude of the Victorian ALP government in not renationalising everything that was sold off by Kennett.

Rod Quantock made these remarks on Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope on 25-9-06

ANDREW DENTON: There were times where you’ve been a trooper. When Jeff Kennett was Premier of Victoria, you described him as evil, “I just think he’s evil.” How much did you hate that man?

ROD QUANTOCK: A lot at the time. What he imposed on Victoria was an agenda set basically by an institute called the Institute of Public Affairs. These are people with an agenda. The agenda in Victoria was to privatise everything. It was to minimise taxes on business and imposts on business and it was to move the public wealth into the hands of the private sector. It involved closing down social services, it involved sacking teachers, it involved reducing hospital services. It just was an impost on the people.

ANDREW DENTON: You said you hated him at the time. Have you found a way to forgive him since?

ROD QUANTOCK: That’s probably a serious question, isn’t it? Look, he’s head of Beyond Blue, the depression task force. The joke going around in Melbourne is that he caused a lot of that and it’s really just like asking a dog to clean up after itself. No, I found him extremely arrogant. I found him authoritarian and I found him very, very destructive in ways that communities and societies shouldn’t be attacked.

Clink on the link to Rod's website.