AMWU NSW Secretary Paul Bastian said that the community had consistently opposed privatisation of public assets and infrastructure services.“It’s difficult to understand why the Premier is pushing ahead with this when there is evidence to show that privatisation is an expensive failure for everyone except the private businesses that buy them.”
An emergency Caucus meeting of NSW Labor parliamentarians on Monday approved the Premier’s plan. Since that time all pretence at ‘negotiations’ with the affected unions have broken down in the face of the Treasurer Michael Costa’s provocative media statements and his refusal to give commitments on job security or conditions of employment for workers in the power industry.
Mr Bastian said the New South Wales Government tried and failed to privatise the power industry in 1997.
“It was a spectacular failure, but since that time, privatisation has always been on the radar.
“Morris Iemma’s State Labor Government didn’t seek a mandate to privatise power or any other NSW public asset. Privatisation was a point of major difference between the ALP and the Coalition during the State election campaign.
“Yet since winning a fourth term at the State election in March, it has been clear that the treasurer has made moves to do whatever necessary to privatise a range of state owned infrastructure and services.”
“While the Government claims it to be a sign of ‘economic responsibility’, we see it for what it is: an attempt to hide public debt which effectively results in the transfer of public wealth to private profit.”
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