For three decades port governance reform has been a strategy adopted by governments around the world to achieve various goals, such as improving efficiency, encouraging private investments, and reducing governments’ financial burden. Following commercialization and corporatization of port authorities in 1990s, six major Australian ports have been privatized from 2011, including the Port of Brisbane, Port Botany, Port Kembla, the Port of Newcastle, the Port of Darwin and the Port of Melbourne. The main drivers for the privatization include the government’s policy of recycling capital for funding other infrastructure projects, the budgetary goal of reducing state governments’ debts, and seeking growth in private investments in public infrastructure.
