The report provides valuable time series data on the financial performance by industry sector of Government businesses. Governments have made substantial progress in creating a more commercial environment for government enterprises. Most businesses are now required to recover costs. They pay dividends, debt guarantee levies and tax-equivalent payments. This imposes financial market disciplines and ensures competitive neutrality.
Governments generally identify community service obligations and meet their cost.
Notwithstanding progress towards a commercial basis of operation, the Commission found that many government businesses are earning low rates of return. Only railways and water enterprises have substantially improved profitability over the last five years - and even for these, profitability remains low. Commission Chairman, Gary Banks, said, 'The trends in financial performance suggest that it may be timely to review the objectives which governments have for their businesses and the appropriateness of the current governance and regulatory framework'. This study forms part of a continuing program of research into the performance of economic infrastructure industries and the impact of microeconomic reforms. Downloading Files Productivity Commission documents are published on this site as pdf files.