The Snowy Mountain Scheme is an iconic example of postwar nation-building infrastructure. By the decade after its completion, the sell-offs were in full swing.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Long-term privatisation contracts, most of them closed to scrutiny, lock urban infrastructure into 20th-century formats unsuited for a climate-threatened planet.
Will the profits of a privatised NSW Land and Property Information Office end up in a tax haven?
NSW LPI
So on the nose is the proposal to auction off the NSW Land and Property Information Office via a 30-year lease that the Law Society, the Real Estate Institute and the Institute of Surveyors oppose it.
Surprisingly, the places with the most competition have seen some of the biggest price rises.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Electricity retailers need to make their prices and offers more transparent and easier for customers to understand, or risk having to submit to price regulation to drive down bills.
Australia’s electricity grid is no longer fit for purpose.
Tatters ❀/Flickr
Africa is facing an annual financing gap for water infrastructure of around $45bn to meet the needs of its citizens. Where is the money going to come from?
With 700,000 vulnerable Australians depending on public housing, any proposal to change its status is likely to set off alarm bells.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The report’s stated goal is to make the social housing system work better. It does not present as a manifesto for an entirely marketised and deregulated framework driven by the profit motive.
Australia has a higher proportion of inmates in privately operated prisons than any other country.
AAP/Paul Miller
Worldwide real estate makes up 60% of the value of all global assets. But it’s being concentrated into the hands of a wealthy few.
There is a strong political and economic case for the government to cut its support for private insurance and to restore Medicare to its original role.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The greater threats to our national public health system lie in the increasing role of consumer co-payments and the power of vested interests that stifle policy innovation in health.