The Privatisation of Government-Owned Enterprises in Australia: The Case of New South Wales

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the organisation of the state industrial undertakings carried out in Australia by the state government of New South Wales, and to analyse the reasons behind their privatisation in the 1920s and 1930s. The privatisation of government-owned enterprises has occurred in a number of countries in recent years (including Australia) and a number of alternative explanations have been given for this occurring. The privatisations of the New South Wales Government in the 1920s and 1930s were driven mainly by budgetary concerns and therefore look similar in character (if not in scale) to some of those undertaken in Australia during the 1990s and 2000s.