Why would a government buy it? Cause the government has an onus to provide transport & the little players would be too much of a risk.
Since when does any government in Australia have a onus to provide any form of transport?
Especially in this instance where the profits have gone private and the debts public?? It’s terrible policy and you are essentially subsidising incompetence and creating moral hazard. Sharps, Skippers et al should be lobbying Canberra and throwing mud. I would be pretty upset if I was one of those operators. You operate fiscally conservative operation your competitor takes a gamble and loses then gets a huge government bailout.
That isn’t capitalism.