Rhetoric and Reality of Public-Private Partnerships: Learning Points from the Australian Experience

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    While public-private partnerships (PPPs) have lately come to be seen as an attractive vehicle to deliver public services, in academic circles, opinions remain divided about their impacts and performance. While the proponents strongly justify PPPs by citing a range of benefits, including enhanced efficiency, cost savings, risk transfer, and value for money, the critics tend to dismiss such assertions and label PPPs as risky and wasteful ventures that eventually lead to much higher costs. Thus, PPPs have been the source of an intense debate and controversy. This article is a contribution to this debate. Based on a review of two leading PPP projects in Australia, it argues that although PPPs may help achieve some short-term objectives, their overall performance falls short of expectations and declared objectives. The article shows that the benefits of PPPs are often exaggerated, that the projected risk transfer is incomplete or unrealistic given the long term nature of projects, and that the contract documents governing the relationships between parties are unable to capture all risks and uncertainties. Finally, it argues that there is a need to augment capacity and skills on both sides, and to undertake a far more careful and considered assessment of the costs, benefits and risks of PPPs.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)129-148
    Number of pages20
    JournalAsian Journal of Political Science
    Volume19
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Keywords

    • Contracts
    • Franchise model
    • Partnership
    • Privatization
    • Risk transfer
    • Value for money

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Rhetoric and Reality of Public-Private Partnerships: Learning Points from the Australian Experience'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this