A 50/50 proposition: public-private partnerships in Australian communications

Search Swinburne Research Bank

Home

List of Titles

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/45263

Download PDF (Author's final draft) (Adobe Acrobat PDF, -1 bytes)

Title: A 50/50 proposition: public-private partnerships in Australian communications
Author(s): Given, Jock
Abstract: The Australian government's proposed public-private broadband partnership is the latest dramatisation of the constantly shifting roles of the private and public sectors in communications. Over the last century and a half, the sector has been a steady source of new institutional models around the world. This article examines the experience of Australia's main wireless company, AWA, as a private-public partnership for nearly 30 years. Reconstructed as a joint enterprise in 1922 to establish direct wireless telegraph services between Australia and Britain and North America, AWA remained co-owned by the Commonwealth and private shareholders until 1951. Several features of this experience seem relevant to the proposed national broadband partnership: the level of political support for the structure; the implications of changes in the use of wireless technology over the life of the investment; the management of market power; financial performance; and the duration of the arrangement.
Publication type: Journal article
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research
Source: Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, No. 129 (Nov 2008), pp.104-115
Publication year: 2008
Keyword(s): Australia; AWA; Broadband; Federal government; Historical analysis; Public-private partnerships
Publisher: University of Queensland
ISSN: 1329-878X
Publisher URL: http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/mia/issues/mia129.html
Full text
Peer reviewed