I have to say that I am extremely relieved to hear that the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectricity Scheme is not going to be privatised. I wasn't really expecting Howard to back flip on this issue, but it is definitely good news for Australia.
I never feel very comfortable with the idea of privatising essential services, but the Snowy raised even bigger issues than most proposals for privatisation. The scheme itself controls a huge amount of water and this control has an enormous impact on the environmental health of a number of waterways - including, of course, the Snowy River, which was robbed of its water by the construction of the dam in the first place, the Murray and the Murrumbidgee Rivers (which are where much of the Snowy River's water is now diverted so that we can continue to irrigate unsustainable farms in the West).
Anyway, under private ownership the commitments made by governments to provide an 'environmental flow' for the Snowy - after a long, hard campaign by the local communities of Dalgety and Orbost - would have been on shaky ground and subject to the profit motives of any private owner. Putting water in private hands is always a recipe for disaster - particularly for the environment and for vulnerable communities.
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