Families fear privatisation plan for Australian Hearing By Sarah Whyte Robbie Ferguson, 11, with sister Evie, 8. "Don't give up with what you do, even though you have hearing loss," Robbie Ferguson tells other children who, like him, are deaf. 
The 11-year-old has the same message for the Abbott government: don't give up on the country's largest hearing provider, which is tipped to be privatised.
Australian Hearing, an organisation that provides hearing services and research for children who are deaf or have hearing loss, has been targeted by the Department of Finance for possible privatisation. The move was recommended by the Commission of Audit.
Labor and advocacy groups argue that the privatisation of Australian Hearing will splinter its services and put profit first. Regional services in remote Australia could be affected.
Labor's shadow parliamentary secretary for health, Nick Champion, said the audiologists at Australian Hearing did an amazing job.
"The proposed privatisation of Australian Hearing is an attempt to Americanise our health system," he said.
"Australian Hearing has operated in government hands since 1947, and should remain that way into the future."
Robbie's mother, Berenice Ferguson, said privatisation would affect the families who used the service.
"Australia has best-practice paediatric hearing services. What we have got is the research informing the practice and then our kids are being the recipients of that.
"I think if we privatise that we lose that unique relationship.
"I would say to the government, 'Celebrate what you're doing really well and don't sell it off'."
Ms Ferguson said when Robbie was a baby they would visit Australian Hearing every week, and he has been getting hearing aids since he was nine weeks old. "We just don't know what to expect, so it makes us very nervous," she said.
Kate Kennedy, co- ordinator of Parents of Deaf Children and a mother of two children with hearing difficulties, said the privatisation of Australian Hearing was "too risky" and was an "ideological decision".
"We at Parents of Deaf Children have been lobbying since the announcement in 2014," she said.
Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann said any change in ownership of Australian Hearing would not affect eligibility or funding of the Community Service Obligation hearing services, including consultations in remote communities.