Professor Chris Aulich on the Federal government’s infrastructure package
Professor Aulich, in The Conversation, discusses the Abbott government’s new A$10 billion infrastructure package, arguing that in focusing on the largely insignificant tax-versus-levy issue, discussion has largely ignored the spending side. About A$5 billion is to be set aside to encourage states to privatise their assets by providing a 15% “bonus” payment for privatising state-owned assets. The assumptions underpinning such a policy are breathtaking in their disregard for evidence and for their promulgation of simplistic propositions about the relative efficiency of public and private sector management.