Childcare is just the latest failure of Australia’s privatisation push. It’s time for an ideology overhaul | John Quiggin

A series of ABC 7.30 reports tells a familiar story of failure in human services.

The reason for this record of failure has been pointed out many times, and ignored just as often by policymakers.

Businesses providing publicly funded or subsidised services can increase their profits in one of two ways.

The hard way is to make technical or organisational innovations that provide a better service at lower cost.

The easy way of all is to avoid meaningful improvements and approach rules with a “tick a box” attitude.

Even the PC is backing away from the for-profit model.

For-profit corporations have no place, or at most a peripheral place, in the provision of basic human services, including health, education and childcare. “People before profit” might seem like a simplistic slogan but it is much close to the truth than “competition and choice”. - John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland’s school of economics .