Privatising the LPI

As we said months ago, it’s an A1 stupid idea which will see property buyers and others paying more than they do now to fund the operator’s profit.

However, this great piece of investigative journalism – don’t you love leaks – exposes the heart of what’s also really very wrong with this idea: having been paid $2 billion up front by the operator for a 35 year publicly funded monopoly, what future State Government would risk a claim from that operator for a refund of those billions or a loss of government conferred profits – with interest and costs – if that government ever sought to exercise its rights to terminate the monopoly in the public interest?