The federal government’s push to privatise state-owned enterprises is being sold as an exercise in realism. Chronic losses, bloated payrolls, weak governance, political interference, and years of inefficiency, we are told, have left these entities beyond repair. The solution, therefore, is to transfer them to private hands, where incentives are clearer, accountability is sharper, and performance matters.

The logic sounds tidy. Perhaps too tidy.

Because if persistent losses, dysfunction, and failure to deliver basic outcomes are the benchmarks for privatisation, it is hard to avoid an uncomfortable question: should the same yardstick apply to the government itself?

Consider the criteria repeatedly cited in official briefs:

financial haemorrhaging that drains the exchequer,

inability to meet service delivery targets,

management structures driven more by........

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