Given the history on privatisation in NSW, and facing a more emotionally powerful campaign, the Baird government is actually doing pretty well to be closing in on polling day in a winning position.
Electricity privatisation has delivered big nest eggs for various state governments – but the NSW government’s $A13 billion privatisation price tag risks being undermined by an election pledge and the recent UBS controversy.
Dmitry Melnikov from www.shutterstock.com
Electricity privatisations have been like golden geese, providing A$37 billion to Australian state governments since 1992. But the price for NSW’s privatisation risks being undercut by two key events.
NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance with the 2014 budget. An economic analysis has found electricity revenues have been crucial to keeping the NSW budget in surplus in recent years.
Paul Miller/AAP
We found that without state-owned electricity revenues, the NSW Coalition government would have struggled to avoid recording deficits in every budget since its election in 2011.
There are many misleading claims about what happens after electricity privatisation – including the impact on prices and on jobs.
Paul Miller/AAP
Both sides of the electricity privatisation debate are guilty of cherry-picking so-called “facts” to suit their campaigns, rather than presenting the real story to voters.
Then NSW treasurer and now Premier Mike Baird, shaking hands in 2013 to mark the handover of Port Botany under a 99-year lease – the same period as has been proposed to lease state electricity assets to private operators.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Privatising public assets is like a tradesperson selling her or his tools when facing a temporary income shortfall. Much better to borrow at low interest rates and productively invest those funds.
Development is underway all around Sydney harbour – but has the public interest been well served?
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The major political parties seem captive to an ideologically driven obsession to privatise public spaces – including the Powerhouse Museum site in Ultimo and other harbour-front sites.
Mike Baird concedes there are ‘challenges’ facing the federal Liberal Party, led by Tony Abbott (right), but says voters want him to focus on state issues.
AAP/Paul Miller
‘There’s no doubt there’s challenges in Canberra … I would like Canberra to get on with the job of actually looking after the people it’s supposed to be representing.’ – Mike Baird
Asked about what he would consider a good result at the upcoming state election, Mike Baird joked he’d be happy with a win.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
‘I would be incredibly disappointed, I can’t tell you how disappointed I’d be, if I didn’t have the opportunity to continue beyond March … [these are] some of the most exciting times in politics’.
To the surprise of many speculative investors in the share market who had tipped Eurostar, Inter City Railways, a joint venture between Stagecoach and Virgin, won the franchise to run the East Coast mainline…
The sale of Medibank private is unlikely to compensate taxpayers for the loss of future revenue.
AAP
The IPO of Medibank Private is set to take place on November 25, and the indicative share price range in the prospectus released today suggests a market capitalisation of between A$4.3 billion and A$5.5…
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has the support of his federal government colleagues to privatise assets, but the electorate remains unconvinced.
Dan Peled/AAP
Queensland’s Campbell Newman-led coalition will seek a mandate to privatise the electricity sector, along with two ports and water pipelines, in next year’s state election, despite it being rejected by…
Same service, higher prices.
Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
The announcement that rail fares will increase by up to 5.5% is yet another indictment of the failure of the country’s privatised railway industry. Railway privatisation was sold to the public on the basis…
The Department for Education’s proposal that for-profit companies could provide child protection services and other statutory functions for families caused a major public uproar this spring – and the furore…
Ofsted head Michael Wilshaw is bringing inspection back in-house.
Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive
The English schools inspectorate Ofsted has announced it will be terminating contracts with its three private inspection services providers from September 2015 and will be employing school inspectors in-house…
A woman prays for the victims of an avoidable tragedy.
EPA
Soma, a little mining village in western Turkey, became host to one of the greatest industrial crimes in mining history when an explosion trapped 800 miners 2km underground and 4km from the exit. At the…
Treasurer Joe Hockey will present his much vaunted first budget tonight.
The proposed sale of the Royal Australian Mint, expected to be announced in tonight’s Federal Budget, raises significant issues that should be addressed by the Coalition government before they go further…
Several train operators are bidding for a contract to run the main train line between London and Edinburgh, but the only company that has made a success of the line will be excluded. Why? For the past…
Sell the antiques, pay for the house extension: capital recycling could be one way of funding new infrastructure.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Treasurer Joe Hockey has spent much of the year – certainly since the G20 finance ministers’ conference in Sydney – talking up “capital recycling”. The idea sounds promising: new projects can be built…
The government has decided to privatise Medibank Private. Now they have to ensure taxpayers get maximum value from the sale.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The planned sale of Medibank Private by IPO continues a trend of privatisation that commenced with the Commonwealth Bank in 1991. While the debate about the merits of privatisation continues, it’s also…
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is seeking a mandate for large-scale asset sales in the state.
Dan Peled/AAP
Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey’s announcement that states will receive an incentive payment of 15% of asset sales if they invest the funds in infrastructure is good news for Queensland’s Newman government…