IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v26y2015i2p218-240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The privatisation of Australian electricity: Claims, myths and facts

Author

Listed:
  • Lynne Chester

Abstract

Australia has one of the most ‘liberalised’ electricity sectors in the world. The sale of government-owned electricity companies has contributed to that liberalisation and a quarter of the proceeds of one of the world’s largest privatisation programmes. In 2014, the state governments of New South Wales and Queensland announced further electricity privatisations if re-elected. Advocates claim private ownership will mean more productive investment, lower costs leading to more efficient operations, lower prices for all consumers and better market functioning without government interference. Opponents contend that the true value of government businesses is not being realised at sale, retention can achieve returns greater than those from a sale, and that follow sale, prices will rise and jobs will be lost. This article demonstrates that the claims of either lower or higher prices, of job losses and of more efficient operations are tantamount to being myths of privatisation not borne out by reality.

Suggested Citation

  • Lynne Chester, 2015. "The privatisation of Australian electricity: Claims, myths and facts," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 218-240, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:26:y:2015:i:2:p:218-240
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304615574973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1035304615574973
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1035304615574973?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pollitt, M.G., 1999. "A survey of the liberalisation of public enterprises in the UK since 1979," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9901, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Topp, Vernon & Kulys, Tony, 2012. "Productivity in Electricity, Gas and Water: Measurement and Interpretation," Staff Working Papers 121, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    3. Malcolm Abbott & Bruce Cohen, 2014. "A Survey of the Privatisation of Government-Owned Enterprises in Australia since the 1980s," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 47(4), pages 432-454, December.
    4. Chris Aulich & Janine O'Flynn, 2007. "From Public to Private: The Australian Experience of Privatisation," Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 153-171, December.
    5. Stefano CLÒ & Chiara F. DEL BO & Matteo FERRARIS & Carlo FIORIO & Massimo FLORIO & Daniela VANDONE, 2014. "Publicization versus Privatization: Recent Worldwide Evidence," Departmental Working Papers 2014-04, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    6. John Quiggin, 2002. "The Fiscal Impact of the Privatisation of the Victorian Electricity Industry," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 13(2), pages 326-339, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chester, Lynne & Elliot, Amanda, 2019. "Energy problem representation: The historical and contemporary framing of Australian electricity policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 102-113.
    2. Nepal, Rabindra & Foster, John, 2015. "Electricity networks privatization in Australia: An overview of the debate," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 12-24.
    3. Nelson, Tim & Dodd, Tracey, 2023. "Contracts-for-Difference: An assessment of social equity considerations in the renewable energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    4. Nelson, Tim & McCracken-Hewson, Eleanor & Sundstrom, Gabby & Hawthorne, Marianne, 2019. "The drivers of energy-related financial hardship in Australia – understanding the role of income, consumption and housing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 262-271.
    5. Rabindra Nepal & Flavio Menezes, 2016. "Small Energy Markets, Scattered Networks and Regulatory Reforms: The Australian Experience," Discussion Papers Series 561, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    6. Rabindra Nepal & Flavio Menezes, 2017. "Regulatory Reforms in Small Energy Systems: Experience from Australia's Northern Territory Electricity Market," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(3), pages 300-316, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chris AULICH & Stephen JONES & Brian HEAD, 2018. "Divestment Of Commonwealth Public Enterprises In Australia: The Cupboard Is Bare," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(3), pages 475-490, September.
    2. Lohmann, Gui & Trischler, Jakob, 2017. "Licence to build, licence to charge? Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 28-37.
    3. Mountain, Bruce R., 2019. "Ownership, regulation, and financial disparity: The case of electricity distribution in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Paul Walker, 2016. "From complete to incomplete (contracts): A survey of the mainstream approach to the theory of privatisation," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 212-229, August.
    5. Lawson, Julie & Pawson, Hal & Troy, Laurence & van den Nouwelant, Ryan & Hamilton, Carrie & Hayward, Richard Donald, 2018. "Social housing as infrastructure: an investment pathway," SocArXiv e9hky, Center for Open Science.
    6. Abbott, Malcolm, 2015. "Reform and efficiency of New Zealand's airports," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-9.
    7. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2016. "The privatization and de-privatization of rail industry assets in Australia and New Zealand," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 48-56.
    8. Malcolm Abbott & Xiaoying Ma, 2017. "Economic Regulation in Australia: The Case of the New South Wales Gas," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 36(3), pages 250-265, September.
    9. Evan Capeluck, 2016. "A Comparison of Australian and Canadian Productivity Performance: Lessons for Canada," CSLS Research Reports 2016-07, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    10. Pollitt, Michael G. & Steer, Steven J., 2012. "Economies of scale and scope in network industries: Lessons for the UK water and sewerage sectors," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 17-31.
    11. Ajit Singh, 2006. "Competition and Competition Policy in Emerging Markets: International and Developmental Dimensions," Chapters, in: Philip Arestis & John S.L. McCombie & Roger Vickerman (ed.), Growth and Economic Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Brendan Markey‐Towler, 2019. "The New Microeconomics: A Psychological, Institutional, and Evolutionary Paradigm with Neoclassical Economics as a Special Case," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(1), pages 95-135, January.
    13. Stefano Clò & Matteo Ferraris & Massimo Florio, 2015. "Public Enterprises in a Global Perspective in the Last Decade," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 111-138.
    14. Pollitt, Michael, 2008. "Electricity reform in Argentina: Lessons for developing countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1536-1567, July.
    15. Pollitt, Michael G., 2012. "The role of policy in energy transitions: Lessons from the energy liberalisation era," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 128-137.
    16. See, Kok Fong & Coelli, Tim, 2014. "Total factor productivity analysis of a single vertically integrated electricity utility in Malaysia using a Törnqvist index method," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 62-72.
    17. Vernon Topp & Tony Kulys, 2014. "On Productivity: The Influence of Natural Resource Inputs," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 27, pages 64-78, Fall.
    18. Flanagan, Kathleen & Martin, Chris & Jacobs, Keith & Lawson, Julie & Hayward, Richard Donald, 2019. "A conceptual analysis of social housing as infrastructure," SocArXiv wmuc4, Center for Open Science.
    19. Pollitt, M. & Dale, L., 2018. "Restructuring the Chinese Electricity Supply Sector - How industrial electricity prices are determined in a liberalized power market: lessons from Great Britain," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1871, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Jenny Stewart & Tony Ablong, 2013. "When Australian defence procurement goes wrong: Improving outcomes in a troubled contractual environment," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 24(2), pages 238-254, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Australia; electricity; privatisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:26:y:2015:i:2:p:218-240. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.