Why ‘privatisation’ should not be a dirty word for the NBN
The Albanese government is mistakenly moving away from selling off public assets, by setting up $50 billion of funds to shower taxpayer money on special interests.
When the Rudd Labor government set up the national broadband network after winning the 2007 election, the plan was for NBN Co to eventually pay dividends to the government in the 2020s and be privatised in the long term.
Some 15 years on, after a much larger-than-expected $29.5 billion government equity investment and billions more in taxpayer loans, there is no prospect of the NBN paying dividends, and the Albanese government has ruled out privatisation in the forseeable future.
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John Kehoe is economics editor at Parliament House, Canberra. He writes on economics, politics and business. John was Washington correspondent covering Donald Trump’s first election. He joined the Financial Review in 2008 from Treasury. Connect with John on Twitter. Email John at jkehoe@afr.com
