SMH 23 February 2011
The NSW government's sale of electricity assets is flawed and should be cancelled before it is completed on March 1, a parliamentary inquiry into the transaction has found.
The inquiry report, due to be released today, recommends that if the sale is not stopped before the election, then an incoming government should tear up the contracts.
The report questions the landmark review of the state's electricity needs used by the NSW government to justify its decision to privatise the electricity assets.
The Owen inquiry found the state's electricity needs would exceed supply by the middle of the decade and recommended privatisation to facilitate investment in new power stations. The parliamentary inquiry has found the Owen report misinterpreted data and drew conclusions that were unjustified.
The parliamentary inquiry, chaired by the Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile, was established after eight directors of two state-owned power companies whose assets were being sold, Delta Electricity and Eraring Energy, resigned in protest.
The report also criticises the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, over a lack of energy policy. Mr O'Farrell has promised to establish a special commission of inquiry into the sale within 30 days if he is elected. He has said the findings will help him decide if he will try to reverse the sale. They would also guide his decision about whether to keep the generation businesses in public hands.
Treasurer Eric Roozendaal is pushing ahead with the sale of NSW power assets sale next planning that it will be settled next Tuesday, just three days before the government enters a caretaker period ahead of the March 26 state election.
The NSW government has ignored all opposition in their dash to sell off these public assets for what was trumpeted as a $3.5 billion one off payment, but has been revealed to be more like $600 million. In the process they ignore the vast majority of NSW voters who have consistently opposed any electricity selloff, they ignore NSW Labor Party policy which opposes electricity selloff and they oppose NSW unions which remain opposed to the selloff.
Who is in favour of this deal? Private electricity companies? Newspaper editors? Offshore energy conglomerates? Offshore financial consortiums and experts at asset stripping?
What will be the immediate result of this privatisation of valuable public assets? A hike in electricity prices in NSW! To the joy of the private companies that own power stations throughout the rest of Australia and the ever outstretched hands of their grasping CEOs. Who will these companies be happy to employ as they divest themselves of their productive workers? Ex-politicians perhaps!
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