In issue 41 of Dissent Magazine, Professor John Quiggin writes on the history of electricity asset sales, the ongoing problems with the National Electricity Market (NEM), the recent history of asset sales in Queensland, and the politics behind smokescreens like the Costello Commission of Audit.
An excerpt from his article has been reprinted below with the permission of Dissent magazine.
The sale of income generating public enterprises does not, in general, improve the financial position of the public sector. There is no reason to think that the sale of Queensland's electricity assets would be an exception to the general pattern.
In specific reference to the Costello Audit commissioned by the Newman government, he says:
The appointment of a commission of audit is a routine piece of political theatre, almost invariably adopted by newly elected conservative governments. Invariably, such commissions report massive fiscal mismanagement by the outgoing Labor government and recommended policies in line with the preferences of the government that appointed them.
The Queensland Commission of audit is a particularly transparent example. Its chair, former federal Treasurer Peter Costello, appointed his own Commission of Audit which was used to justify the Howard government's abandonment of 'non-core' election promises. In office Costello used asset sales to produce spurious improvements in the government's balance sheet.
Although the Howard-Costello government presented itself as a model of fiscal rectitude, independent evaluators have been far less charitable. An IMF assessment described the Howard government in its later terms as fiscally 'profligate'.
The conclusions of the Commission of Audit were entirely predictable. Equally predictable was the commission's and the Newman government's refusal to engage with criticism. Following the pattern set by Anna Bligh and Andrew Fraser, independent analyses of the commission's interim report were dismissed with contemptuous quips and ad hominem attacks.
And in summary Professor Quiggan says:
The sale of Queensland electricity assets has been put forward as a way to reduce electricity prices and improve the state's financial position. In reality, it will achieve neither of these goals/
If you are interested in reading the full article by Professor Quiggin, you can access it online by subscribing to Dissent magazine.