When public housing like the properties in Sydney’s Millers Point is privatised, it profoundly changes the social mix of the inner city to something much more homogenous.
AAP/Newzulu/Peter Boyle
The NSW government agenda would deny the ‘right to the city’, that network of diverse communities, practices and places which give rise to the convivial and inclusive potential of cities.
The sale of the port of Fremantle, the last capital city port to be privatised, is now in limbo.
AAP/Kim Christian
The Barnett government’s plans to sell ports, including the last capital city port slated for privatisation, appear to have been torpedoed by the WA Nationals’ change of heart.
If a state-owned port is sold at a higher price with competition restrictions, consumers will pay higher prices in the future because of these restrictions.
AAP/Martin Philbey
State governments are now seeking to maximise the price of privatised assets by adding sale terms that restrict competition for the future private owners. That amounts to a hidden tax on consumers.
The public are increasingly keen to trespass on corporate land.
MollyBob/Flickr
Sale of Channel 4 will risk the broadcaster’s ability to produce cutting edge, innovative films and television programmes.
Electricity pylons from Cape Town’s Koeberg nuclear power plant. State-owned companies help to provide infrastructure for economic development.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
State-owned companies are not generally needed to provide goods. Rather, they are needed to provide the foundation for a well-functioning economy and a healthy, well-informed populace.
Nothing gets past PC Puppet. Well, not many things.
Michael Randall
One of Jeremy Corbyn’s picks for his economic advisory team is doubtful about the viability of a Robin Hood tax, but sees little obstacle to public ownership in the banking sector.
The UK is witnessing its biggest cull of public sector jobs in half a century and hundreds of thousands of workers must make the transition to the private sector.
Will Greece’s asset fund turn into an investing piggy bank or another lost opportunity?
Piggie bank via www.shutterstock.com
Greece must sell €50 billion worth of government assets as part of its latest bailout. It could very well go wrong.
As control over water returns to the state, the Indonesian government should carefully develop policies to manage and monitor water services.
nikkytok/www.shutterstock.com
A new study of more than 2000 Australians has found we care deeply about local councils, and overwhelmingly want governments – not private contractors – to deliver local services.
Is the NHS ‘a wretched bowl of alphabetti spaghetti’, as David Cameron put it?
James
Mike Baird’s Liberal National coalition has been comfortably returned to government in New South Wales, despite a 9% statewide swing against it on the two-party preferred vote.
A still from a NSW election ad, run on television and online, which says “selling the electricity network is wrong; selling it to another country is just not on”.
CFMEU Mining/YouTube
Labor and the unions have decided to play the China card in the NSW election. Such scare campaigns ignore the facts, including that Australia has invested almost as much in China as China has here.