The A$5 billion ($3.5 billion) Queensland Future Fund has identified opportunities to hold non-cash investments such as unregulated infrastructure in an effort to stave off privatization of the Australian state’s strategic assets.
According to several news reports, the anti‑privatization protections are being placed to keep these assets in public hands as part of a larger COVID-19 recovery effort.
Assets such as commercial power or water infrastructure will be placed in the fund — or what treasurer Cameron Dick called a “locked box”— to protect them from being privatized. These assets can then, by law only, be sold or traded with other state government entities. Regulated electricity and water assets would not qualify to be moved into the Future Fund.
The Queensland Future Fund was first announced by the Palaszczuk Government in
