"NSW Coalition premier Mike Baird is well placed to fix the damage caused by one of the worse examples of regulatory capture since federation.
True, he would have been better served by promising to privatise the entire electricity distribution system following a likely win (at least in the lower house) at the March 28 election. And yes, he may be overstating the gains from his proposal to lease a total of 49 per cent of the state's "poles and wires" for 99 years.
However, the full benefits from partial privatisation won't materialise while Baird refuses to embrace new rules overturning the old regulatory regime the former Labor energy minister Martin Ferguson foolishly praised as "cutting edge". Far from being cutting edge, these rules let the monopoly distributors ride roughshod over their business and household customers.
Modelling by Deloitte Access Economics says the asset-recycling plan will increase state output by $300 billion over the next 20 years.
Modellers have previously highlighted the supposed gains from tollways and tunnels whose operators later went broke. At best, this sort of modelling should be treated with a kindly disregard.
However, provided Conboy prevails, significant efficiency gains should flow from scrapping the old regulations that promoted feather-bedding and gold-plating."