Privatisation is one of the primary drivers of the cost-of-living crisis, impacting housing, water and electricity, roads, telecommunications, and even going to hospital.

While the mainstream media and economists want you to think public services and wage increases for everyday workers is driving up inflation, it is really corporate greed from companies that own natural monopolies.

And the vast majority of companies that now own our electricity and roads are foreign multinationals that send dividends off-shore. In addition to price-gouging, they’re undermining Australia’s national sovereignty.

When previously publicly-owned services like electricity or roads are sold off, it transforms things you need to live into commodities — something that is bought and sold for profit. The new corporate owners — often foreign multinational corporations with no real connection to Australia — are entirely focused on making as much profit as they can.

Private corporations must increase prices far more to cover marketing, executive bonuses, and dividends.

It’s no accident that privatised companies are the ones that have seen the biggest price increases over the past decade.

The fastest-rising costs in the CPI basket over the past two decades have been utilities (gas 5.9 per cent per year), electricity (5.7 per cent), medical and hospital services (5.5 per cent), insurance (5.3 per cent), schools and childcare (secondary 5.2 per cent, preschool and primary 3.9 per cent) water and sewerage (4.6 per cent) and housing (3.9 per cent). Other items have fallen: electronics, household appliances, clothing and footwear have got much cheaper, courtesy of the Chinese manufacturing boom.

The chart above shows clearly that the prices of things you actually need to survive (power, gas, health) have skyrocketed.

Privatisation is a kind of austerity — a tool used by the billionaires and financial elites to maintain their power over workers and ensure that everyday people are entirely reliant on buying basic necessities from corporations.

When critical services and infrastructure is privatised, it removes the vital buffers and protections that everyday people need to have stable, secure lives. You are forced to “shop around”, so that systematic, unavoidable price-gouging is repackaged as a consumer choice, and your wage is redirected to corporate profits instead of what you want to spend it on to have a good life. This worsens your dependence on your boss and gives your boss even more power — because you need a wage just to access even the most basic services to live.

The sell-off of public assets like roads and public transport is a way that big business siphons wealth from you to their billionaire owners. Your salary is converted into private dividends for overseas ultra-rich asset owners.

Why is this important?

Because excessive corporate power becomes entrenched when these companies control life-sustaining infrastructure and services. This gives big business massive power over both the general population and the government. It is one of the reasons why governments bend to the will of big business instead of listening to what citizens want.

The ultra-rich corporate executives and billionaires have a vested interest in keeping you focused on other issues. They won’t want you taking a look at why their prices have skyrocketed and how they benefit from draining your wages and income. They would much rather you blame immigrants or people on NDIS or Indigenous people for the cost-of-living crisis.

Fixing the cost of living requires taking back control of our own resources and public services from global corporations. No amount of attacking immigrants will change the fact that massive corporations will continue to raise prices and drain your bank-balance.

Read more: Alison Pennington, We’re ignoring the root cause of our inflation scourge. When will we learn?