Premier Mike Baird has been warned against further privatisation of water and sewerage services in response to corruption allegations that Australian Water Holdings exploited taxpayers' money under a government contract.
The Australian Services Union (ASU) state secretary Sally McManus has urged the state government to put off any plans to issue contracts for the delivery of water services to more than 100,000 new homes to be built in south-west Sydney.
She said a contract already awarded to Australian Water Holdings to provide water and sewerage for new developments in Sydney's north-west should be cancelled and reclaimed by Sydney Water to ensure quality and value for money to NSW taxpayers.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption has heard Australian Water Holdings charged exorbitant executive salaries, political donations, a corporate box and limousines to public-owned Sydney Water, despite the expenses having nothing to do with the water and sewerage services the company was contracted to provide.
Ms McManus said the ICAC inquiry had demonstrated the outsourcing model for water services was flawed and open to exploitation. ''Is the government going to go on this folly again with private companies or are they going to make sure the people of south-west Sydney are looked after and the rest of us aren't ripped off,'' Ms McManus said.
She called on both sides of politics to rule out any further contracts of the kind AWH secured and to review its contract for water services in north-west Sydney.
''Australian Water Holdings have fleeced the public. They were massively over-charging to wine and dine politicians and to buy political influence,'' she said.
''Sydney Water and the government should take the necessary steps to get that contract cancelled and take that infrastructure over again.
''The development of Sydney's fringes provides a major infrastructure challenge that businesses are only too willing to exploit.''
Ms McManus said that managed in the public interest the project and revenue could benefit the government through higher dividends which it could use to develop public infrastructure and services.
The ICAC has been told that AWH chief executive Nick Di Girolamo was earning more than $1 million and billed Sydney Water for expenses including a trip to a Cairns resort for him and Eddie Obeid jnr, who was also employed by the company.
Among the salaries potentially billed to Sydney Water was $200,000 a year for former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, for which the ICAC alleges he did between 25 and 45 hours' work.
The inquiry is investigating allegations the family of disgraced former Labor MP Eddie Obeid had a secret shareholding in AWH and lobbied the government on the company's behalf.
Barry O'Farrell was forced to resign as NSW premier last week after giving misleading evidence to the ICAC hearings about the gift of a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange from Mr Di Girolamo after the 2011 election.
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