Privatisation in Australia and the western economies in the 1990's: Distributional and political effects of accounting and financial reporting

This article captures the effects of 1990's privatization two decades later and challenges whether the expected outcomes of Government debt reduction, a change in share ownership, reduced union and government intervention, and improved efficiency have been achieved. It also addresses whether the benefits of achieving such fiscal and political goals outweigh the social costs of a redistribution of wealth away from citizens should be considered. Otherwise financial results of such public sector accounting may raise issues of their justification in terms of non-trivial dimensions. Should public sector accounting standards and financial reports be used to justify government policies for the re-distribution of wealth? The recent economic turmoil that has focused on ailing economies, company collapses and falling markets brings economic policies into question and this aspect is addressed within the paper together with traditional foundations of financial accounting for recognition of bargained equities among participants