The really stupid thing is that it is now probably the last...

The really stupid thing is that it is now probably the last opportunity for the Govt to sell the "poles and wires" companies for a reasonable amount (as is happening in NSW) prior to their business model being totally disrupted by the coming revolution in battery storage. Instead they won the election largely on the basis of No Asset Sales, thus ensuring that it is the taxpayer rather than ignorant investors that are lumbered with these dinosaurs.

Then again, if these assets had been sold they would almost certainly have had guaranteed returns based on regulated ROI on their taxpayer funded gold-plated assets which will mean the taxpayer gets slugged anyway...