CSL, the company accused of a secret plan to sell blood products overseas was privatised by the Labor government in the early 1990s. The sale looked profitable on the surface but was sweetened by an incredibly lucrative contract for the processing of blood donated by Australians to the Red Cross. This cash cow has been used to finance a range of biotech ventures that, until recently, were pushing CSL’s share price up to the stratosphere.

The deal has given rise to a string of subsequent scandals, not surprisingly when you read something like this:

The proposal to sell products made from donated blood to foreign bidders was revealed in a candid address to an international conference by the head of CSL, Dr Brian McNamee, in which he said: “The reality is the Red Cross is a franchise and is a retailer.”

As Clive Hamilton and I showed in a paper available here, this was one of the worst privatisations ever undertaken by an Australian government. In view of the latest scandal, it’s a prime candidate for renationalisation.