We're better prepared for asset sale fight: union Unions will build on the lessons of the past when constructing their campaign against any future privatisation of state owned assets and government services. Together Union secretary Alex Scott said previous campaigns against privatisation had failed. The last campaign was in 2010, when the then-Bligh government split the state owned rail assets and floated the freight arm, which is now known as Aurizon. With the government preparing to release its response to the Peter Costello led Commission of Audit, which recommended the sale and outsourcing of some major assets and services - namely those in the energy and health sectors - the unions are ramping up the "community campaign" against those sales. The government has repeatedly promised not to sell assets without a mandate, which would mean taking the issue to an election. It has not made the same commitment when it comes to leasing assets. Privatisation is a red letter topic in Queensland and was largely considered to be largely responsible for the overwhelming defeat Labor suffered at the last election. Commissioning ReachTEL to conduct the "largest scientific political poll in Australian history" was part of the Together Union campaign, Mr Scott said, as it enabled the union to focus on the regions where voters reported privatisation "was of most concern." "The last government got punished at the polls for privatising," Mr Scott said. Our objective is not to stop privatisation, not to punish them. We prefer governments came up with good policy. At a minimum if the government sought a mandate, they wouldn't get a mandate, they would lose government, so we would be able to stop the asset sales if they were put off until after the election, but clearly the government is talking about privatising some things before the election. The target of the campaign is to try and convince the government not to do bad policy. Mr Scott said the feedback from the surveys the unions have commissioned have helped shaped their campaign "The premier has a strong view that it doesn't matter who is employing the workers, it only matters who owns the buildings," he said. Feedback from this survey is that people care about who employs the doctors and nurses. Having public owned buildings is less important that having publicly run services so there won't be the selling off of the Royal Brisbane [and Women's] Hospital physical infrastructure, but the Royal Brisbane might not have any public sector services provided in those buildings. The community cares about the services and cares about their quality of life and doesn't necessarily care about who owns the buildings and that sort of stuff which I think is an argument the bureaucrats, the treasury and politicians have. What really matters to Queenslanders is who is responsible for delivering the services they get, whether it is electricity or health services or child safety. Additional reporting by Tony Moore