Roger Douglas gets the point

Previously I wrote about the aims of privatisation programs and said:

Another issue which is getting much press is how much would the government get for the shares it would sell and what will it do with the money. A problem here is that talking about maximising the return from privatisation misses the whole point of privatisation which is to improve the efficient and productivity of the economy. If we just worry about how much we will get for the sale of assets then we should sell all of the state assets with the firms being monopolists. But that's unlikely to do much for welfare.

Now I see from this article from the New Zealand Herald that Roger Douglas at least has also come to this conclusion:

"Privatisation is not really about how much money you get for the asset, that's important, but the more important issues are to get the regulatory environment right so that competition can take place in the industry.

"What you measure your success by is the productivity that flows following the corporatisation / privatisation process."

Well said that man!