Privatization of Australian Hearing

The opinion article gives the viewpoint of Labor Senator Doug Cameron on privatizing this public service and its research arm, the National Acoustic Laboratories. Cameron is opposition spokesperson for human services in the Australian Senate. Australian Hearing provides hearing services to children and young adults under the age of 26, veterans, indigenous adults over 50, and pensioners.

Cameron asks several questions about the planned sell-off, citing the risk, uncertainty and increased costs that would be associated with private hearing care. He also highlights the fact that Australian Hearing is the only organization that trains pediatric audiologists in the country. He believes that the organization allows people to participate in social activities and in productive work, and that it is a lifeline that prevents people becoming isolated, particularly the elderly and children, as well as those in remote areas.

He also says that no persuasive argument has been made to privatize the organization, which makes a profit, operating at no cost to government. According to Cameron, this is an attractive and valuable asset and its customer database would be highly coveted by private audiology companies. Cameron states that the Labor party agrees with Better Hearing Australia and with the Deafness Forum of Australia which believes that privatizing the organization presents a range of unsolved problems.

Source: The Mercury