In late 2014, the Productivity Commission’s (PC) released a report on the provision of public infrastructure, which explicitly warned that the Coalition’s financial incentives to the states to sell-off public assets (“asset recycling”) “could act to encourage privatisation in circumstances that are not fully justified and encourage the selection of new projects that do not have demonstrable net benefits”.
Since that time, we have witnessed the states flog-off essential infrastructure and other public assets without giving due regard to longer-term consequences, and without ensuring that adequate regulatory frameworks are put in place first.
