Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickstatus" data-source="post: 1972406" data-attributes="member: 49035">Yes but a public utility’s primary function is not necessarily for income profit or capital gain. If often makes an income loss in order to serve a public “good”. So any capital loss on the eventual sale of the public utility is the really the crystallisation of the financial losses accumulated while in public hands and the valuation of the business on a commercial basis. It is not “ socialisation” of losses. A govt can improve the commercial valuation if it chooses to do so but it may run into resistance from the public because that normally is associated with price rises. If the NBN is to be sold with no capital loss then it must have a rate of return to support that invested capital.  Can’t have it both ways. Currently NBN is not a public utility. It is a government owned entity with a target rate of return. The govt (on behalf of taxpayers)  decided to deploy capital to create a business. The govt (on behalf of taxpayers) wants a certain return. That it may fail is no different to any private company failing and subsequently bought for a song.</blockquote>