Consumers will soon pay more for the protectionist tactics the former NSW Coalition premier Mike Baird used to achieve a higher than expected price for the partial privatisation of his state's electricity distributors. A subsequent court decision last Wednesday means higher power prices are now expected to apply across the country. Initially, the decision will affect consumers in NSW and the ACT, but it is set to flow on to other states at a time when power bills remain a potent political issue.

There was nothing wrong with privatising NSW's pampered operators of the "poles and wires" network. Baird should have privatised the lot, instead of leasing only half the wholesale distributors while leasing all the high-voltage lines. The problem was that Baird relied on some of the worst features of a perverse regulatory framework to boost the sale price.