Submission, to Victorian Parliament Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Inquiry into Private Sector Investment in Public Infrastructure

This is a submission dealing with the currently popular policy of private-public partnerships. A key recommendation of my submission is that measures of public debt should be extended to include obligations under leases and other long-term obligations, particularly where these arise from contracting arrangements that replace public investments that would otherwise incur debt. Currently, both governments and private corporations can conceal debt by converting into long-term leases. Enron was a leading practitioner of this ‘asset light’ strategy.