Lukas Coch/AAP
Government-owned firms are often branded as uncompetitive, stuck in the past and unable to truly innovate. But they’re sometimes better suited than private firms to drive new, clean technologies.
Papin Lab/Shutterstock
Christine Holgate’s demise over luxury watches shows public-sector norms and private-sector competition don’t mix well.
Several protests have trailed the privatisation of the power sector in Nigeria.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Nigeria’s attempt at privatising its power infrastructure hasn’t been without challenges but they are not insurmountable.
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Economics tells us that governments privatising services where quality counts is a bad idea.
Not a smooth transition: Boris Yeltsin talks to people in Moscow in 1992.
Dima Tanin/EPA
The fifth episode of a series from The Anthill Podcast on how recoveries from major crises throughout history focuses on what happened after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Australian and Victorian governments have both promised funding for a Melbourne Airport rail link, but a private consortium’s unsolicited proposal is also on the table.
Stefan Postles/AAP
Unsolicited market proposals are not transparently assessed. Infrastructure should be built to serve the public interest, not shaped by its private backers, but the checks to ensure this are broken.
Julie Clopper / Shutterstock
A look at the theory behind nationalising key public services, as well as what has happened in practice.
A.G. Sanders with penicillin extraction equipment.
Image reproduced with permission of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford
The pipeline for new antibiotics is broken. It is time to think outside the box.
Dilok Klaisataporn/Shutterstock.com
Global forces affect corruption, too.
Queuing up after power shortages.
Lewis Pennock/PA Wire/PA Images
Late trains, anxiety, stressful commutes, disruption to family life – just some of the woes of train customers.
Sundry Photography/Shutterstock
Who has the right to use an Amazon domain name? The people who live there or a company with the same name?
In Victoria in 1992, every government-employed school cleaner was terminated overnight.
from shutterstock.com
Public schools in some states outsourced their cleaning services to private companies as part of a neoliberal experiment starting in the 1990s. This has had a host of impacts, including on students.
Dan Kitwood/PA Wire
A recent damning report on probation shows the need to reassess outsourcing by the public sector.
DGLimages/Shutterstock.com
Why choice should not be the most important factor in elder care.
Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan.
EPA-EFE/Fares Ghaith
Three important lessons from three recent privatisations.
Private companies can provide services - like catering - for inmates.
LightField Studios/Shutterstock
Turning prisons into a market opportunity could open them up to corruption.
Gladys Berejiklian’s government will pay for much of WestConnex construction, give away other toll roads, guarantee annual toll increases and force motorists to use the toll road.
AAP Image/Joel Carrett
The NSW government will spend more than $23 billion on toll road, and recoup just $4 billion by selling it.
ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has launched a strong defence of the public broadcaster.
AAP/Julian Smith
A motion to privatise the ABC, no matter how vigorously repudiated by the government, is political poison, and may now reap a political harvest.
Surveys suggest lots of people want to renationalise the railways.
Callum Chapman via Unsplash
Under current EU rules, Britain cannot recreate a railway monopoly. It can, however, follow the lead of other EU countries in bringing more of the rail sector into public ownership.
The Vote Leave campaign’s slogan was ‘take back control’.
EPA/Will Oliver
Three important aspects of international trade deals will limit the UK’s democratic control over trade.