[2011G6E]

The awkward fact that no government wants to own up to is that in a tiny country like ours (by world standards...we have less people than some large urban areas overseas), there just isn't the population base to allow for several companies to all be offering the same service efficiently.

With our small population, the government should run everything...power, water, communications, postal service...and just wear it on the chin if it isn't "massively profitable". As long as it breaks even that's all that matters...and maybe not even then in some areas.

If you try and hand it over to private enterprise because of claims they can "do it better" you're just asking for huge hikes in bills and lack of service to unprofitable areas. We simply don 't have the population base to indulge that sort of foolishness.
Once you give it to a public company, with shareholders, only one thing matters: not customer satisfaction, not a pleasant corporate image, not giving back to the community...the only thing that matters is "return to shareholders", and if shareholders don't see a rise year on year, they'll jump ship, so any staff cuts and putting off of maintenance is justified in keeping that bottom line growing.
"Competition"? Not outside the capital cities...we've actually had people move here from Brisbane and honestly ask "who's the best power company to go with up here for a good deal?"...and the answers are usually "Well you have the choice of Ergon, Ergon, Ergon...or...umm...Ergon". Either everyone should be able to benefit from this amazing world of competition we hear about, or no one should. It's no use for the government to shout about this wonderful world of free market competition if everyone can't get in on it and benefit from it equally, no matter where they are.

In a fair Australia with our small population, the government would run power, water, and other essential services, not worry about profitability, and subsidise things to keep the long suffering taxpayer as happy as possible.


Couldn't work? No? Take this as a mental exercise: Say they privatized "for the sake of efficiency" the postal service.
Do you think you'd pay the same price for a stamp in Darwin as you do in Sydney...?
Or take power supply...people in Brisbane benefit from competition and a wide choice of power companies because of privatization. Now...this is only done because of a concentration of population in that corner of the state. Say the whole state power system was privatised (leased out, whatever...).
How much do you think people in far flung corners of the state would be paying for power where there isn't the population base to make it "pleasant" for the poor old shareholders/investors? How much maintenance would the company be bothered to do out in the bush where a power outage might annoy a couple of hundred people, as opposed to tens of thousands down in Brisbane/Gold Coast area...?

You're very very naive if you think private companies would even worry about dodgy power supplies for country areas...