How to read this page
The point of a ledger is that you don't have to take anyone's word for it. This page collects the raw entries — the deals themselves — so the argument made elsewhere on this site can be checked against the record, line by line.
Where a stake, price or date is precise and documented, the cell shows the figure plainly. Where a figure is rounded, disputed or a settlement rather than a headline price, it carries an approx tag so you know to treat it as an estimate. Numeric columns are set in monospace so the numbers line up and can be scanned. verified
The pattern, in one sentence A public asset — a road, a wires network, a port, a registry, a hospital — is sold or leased to a private consortium on a very long concession; the consortium collects monopoly rent for decades; the asset is frequently bought partly with Australians' own compulsory super; and when the deal fails, the losses land back on the public. This ledger is the same story told fifty times.
Toll roads — one operator, concessions to 2060
Drive a tolled motorway in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and you are almost certainly paying Transurban. It owns or operates virtually every major toll road across the three biggest cities, on concessions that run for decades. The concession-end year is the year the private right to charge you finally expires.
| Toll road | City | Transurban stake | Tolling until | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hills M2 | Sydney | 100% | 2048 | — |
| WestConnex (M4 & M5) | Sydney | 50% | 2060 | Also AustralianSuper 20.5%, CPPIB 20.5%, Tawreed 9%; 51% sold 2018 for $9.3bn |
| Eastern Distributor | Sydney | 75.1% | 2048 | — |
| Cross City Tunnel | Sydney | 100% | 2035 | Transurban after 2006 receivership |
| Lane Cove Tunnel | Sydney | 100% | 2048 | Bought ~$630m approx after 2010 receivership |
| Westlink M7 | Sydney | 50% | 2048 | — |
| NorthConnex | Sydney | 50% | 2048 | — |
| CityLink | Melbourne | Transurban | 2045 | Concession extended to 2045 |
| Clem7, AirportLink, Gateway/Logan | Brisbane | Transurban Qld | — | Transurban became sole operator after the RiverCity (2011) & BrisConnections (2013) collapses |
That is not a market — it is a private tax on movement, granted by governments, over roads the public already paid to build. verified Full detail, escalation clauses and the $123bn projection are on The toll roads.
Source: Transurban corporate asset pages (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane concession dates); consortium stakes as published at time of sale. See /tolls and Sources.
Failed private toll roads — the losses that got socialised
"Risk transfer" is the whole sales pitch for privatising a road: the private operator takes the traffic risk, not the taxpayer. In practice, when the traffic forecasts proved wildly optimistic, the operators collapsed — and the public asset kept running while investors and lenders wore the losses, or chased the forecasters through the courts.
| Road | Operator | Failed | Aftermath |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross City Tunnel | — | Dec 2006 | Receivership |
| Lane Cove Tunnel | — | Jan 2010 | Receivership |
| Clem7 | RiverCity Motorway | Feb 2011 | Administration; AECOM settled ~$280m approx in 2015 |
| AirportLink M7 | BrisConnections | Feb 2013 | Administration; Arup settled forecast suit 2018 |
Every one of these roads is still open. The concrete didn't fail — the financial promise did. The detailed autopsy is on When the toll road goes bust. verified
Source: administrator and receiver appointments as reported at the time; AECOM and Arup traffic-forecast settlements. See /losses and Sources.
Electricity networks — NSW's 99-year leases
The poles and wires that carry your power are a natural monopoly — there is only ever going to be one set of them. NSW leased its transmission and distribution networks for 99 years, much of it to consortia part-owned by industry super funds, at prices that made headlines as record "asset recycling" wins.
| Network | Year | Stake sold | Price | Buyer consortium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TransGrid | 2015 | 100% | $10.258bn | NSW Electricity Networks consortium |
| Ausgrid | 2016 | 50.4% | ~$16.2bn approx | IFM Investors / AustralianSuper consortium |
| Endeavour Energy | 2017 | 50.4% | ~$7.6bn approx | Macquarie (MIRA) / AMP · REST / BCIMC / Qatar consortium |
All three are 99-year leases — a lifetime, plus. What that hands the new owners, and how it flows into your bill, is on The wires. verified
Source: NSW Government "poles and wires" long-term lease transactions (2015–2017); consortium composition as announced. See /power and Sources.
Ports, registries & airports — the quiet monopolies
Beyond roads and wires sit the assets most people never think about: the port your imports pass through, the registry that records who owns your house, the airport you fly from. Each is effectively un-competable, and each has been leased out on decades-long concessions.
| Asset | Year | Term | Price | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port of Melbourne | 2016 | 50-yr lease | ~$9.7bn approx | Lonsdale Consortium (Future Fund, QIC, GIP, OMERS) |
| NSW Ports (Port Botany + Port Kembla) | — | lease | — | Consortium incl. IFM Investors |
| NSW Land Registry Services | 2017 | 35-yr concession | ~$2.6bn approx | Hastings + First State Super–led consortium |
| Victoria land titles registry | 2018 | concession | ~$2.86bn approx | First State Super involved |
| Major airports (Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin; Sydney) | — | up to 99-yr leases | — | IFM Investors holds several |
Note the Port of Melbourne buyer: the Lonsdale Consortium (Future Fund, QIC, GIP, OMERS) — not IFM. The registries are the strangest of all: a private company now owns the long-term right to record who owns land in an entire state. verified More on The other assets.
Source: state lease/concession transactions and airport long-lease records; buyer consortia as announced. See /assets and Sources.
PPP hospitals — mostly returned to public, or failed
Hospitals were the frontier where the public-private partnership model was meant to prove itself in front-line services. The record is a run of overruns, service failures and quiet returns to public ownership — culminating in one state banning acute-hospital PPPs outright.
| Hospital | State | Model | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Beaches Hospital | NSW | Healthscope / Brookfield PPP | Operator receivership 2025 (>$1.6bn); returning to public ownership 2026. NSW then banned acute-hospital PPPs |
| New Royal Adelaide Hospital | SA | PPP | ~$640m approx cost overruns / claims |
| Fiona Stanley | WA | Serco services | Returned to public 2020 |
| La Trobe Regional | VIC | PPP | Earlier PPP hospital returned to public |
| Port Macquarie Base | NSW | PPP | Earlier PPP hospital returned to public |
When a road fails, the road stays open. When a hospital PPP fails, the state has to step back in and run it — which tells you something about how much "risk" was ever really transferred. verified The full record is on The hospitals.
Source: hospital PPP transactions, receivership and return-to-public events as reported; NSW acute-hospital PPP ban. See /hospitals and Sources.
The list is not exhaustive
This ledger covers the biggest and best-documented deals — it is not the whole book. There are smaller road, water, prison, transport-ticketing and service PPPs across every state, and more long leases than one page can hold. If you can document a deal we've missed, or you think a figure here is wrong, tell us and cite it: whistle@theradicalparty.com. Corrections with a source will be made and credited.
One recurring shape Public asset → sold or leased on a decades-long concession → monopoly rent, escalating by contract → frequently bought with Australians' own super → and, when it fails, the losses are socialised. Read down any table above and you are reading the same deal, over and over.
Cross-references — the detailed pages behind this ledger: Toll roads · Failed roads · Electricity networks · Ports, registries & airports · PPP hospitals. All citations are collected on Sources.