Privatisation has been an unmitigated failure

The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss has expertly dissected the failure of Australia’s 30-years of privatisation, explaining how it has provided a dud deal for consumers and taxpayers, as well as lowered productivity:

While governments keen to sell the assets built up by their predecessors always focus on the short-term reduction in public debt, they rarely talk about the long-term impact of lost revenue streams in the decades ahead.

Back in the 1990s, Jeff Kennett sold off Victoria’s electricity assets for $23.5bn, but it has been estimated that last year alone the electricity industry made $23bn in profit from Victorian consumers and businesses. Whoops.