Blue Mountains: No power privatisation!

A leading anti-electricity privatisation group has written to Member for Bathurst Gerard Martin calling on him to oppose the latest push by the Rees Government to sell off the State’s power system.

The call comes after power workers at Delta facilities on the Central Coast walked off the job last Friday in a protest against power privatisation plans.

The letter from PeoplePower Blue Mountains highlights statements made under oath late last year by the head of NSW Treasury John Pierce that many of the day-to-day decisions on the running of plants at Mt Piper and Wallerawang would be taken from Delta Electricity and given to the successful bidder for the generator trading rights.

Many industry commentators have already said that the successful bidder for the trading rights at Delta would likely be an overseas-based company.

"Whoever wins the bid for the generator trading rights will be driven by profit,” PeoplePower Blue Mountains convenor Liam Mitchell said.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what is going to happen to job security, pay and conditions if an overseas multinational is calling the shots at Delta."

PeoplePower Blue Mountains say press reports indicate that NSW Infrastructure Minister Joe Tripodi is behind the revived plan.

"The people behind this, Joe Tripodi and the NSW Treasury, must be very slow," Mitchell said.

"The people of NSW, especially workers in the industry, have spelled it out for them time and time again — privatisation in any form of public utilities is simply not an option.

"We are calling on Gerard Martin to publicly come out and back the many families in his electorate that rely on the electricity generation industry for decent jobs.

"If Mr Martin prefers to choose Joe Tripodi over his electorate we will be encouraging him to come out publicly and explain why.

"This is not an issue that anyone can sit on the fence on.

"The events at Vales Point last Friday show that anger among power workers is very real and it is a matter if when, not if, this issue will emerge locally.

"When that happens workers in the power industry, and the broader community, want Mr Martin to stand by his community and publicly state that he is opposed to privatisation of the power industry and especially the Tripodi plan."

Unemployment and welfare research

There could be one person of working age on welfare for every three people with a job by the time the recession ends, according to one of Australia's leading economists, Bob Gregory.

Professor Gregory has modelled the changes in the welfare population following the 1990-92 recession, and says the rise in unemployment is likely to be followed by increases in the number of people on disability, carer and sole-parent pensions.

A paper to be presented by Professor Gregory to a Victoria University conference next month shows the full-time male workforce never recovered from the 1990-92 downturn, when it dropped from a historic average of about 62 per cent to 54 per cent of the male working-age population.

"What happens is that male unemployment goes up, and then, as time goes by, the unemployment rate comes down, not because there are more jobs but because the unemployed gradually seep into disability payments," he says.

Professor Gregory says that a year or two after a recession, half the men on disability benefits have come from the unemployment pool, where they have been in and out of jobs for some time. It is usually men aged over 55 years.

The rise in the number of women on welfare during a recession is more likely to be an indirect result of male unemployment.

"For women, because the men didn't have jobs, they took up welfare as partners, carers or as lone parents," he says in the paper.

He says the Government and Treasury have not yet started to calculate the effect of what could prove to be an additional million people on welfare, sustained for six or seven years.

"The only budgetary implication that the Government has consciously faced has been around what to do about old-age pensioners, where they seem to have taken a gulp and decided to go ahead anyway."

Any decision to raise the age pension is likely to spill over to the disability, carers and sole parent pensions, which are all based on the same formula.

First strike in privatisation battle

Workers at Vales Point power station near Newcastle have voted to go on strike until first shift on Saturday, to protest the State Government's plans to privatise the power industry.

A meeting of rank and file members was held just after midday, voting overwhelmingly to strike over the plans, which affect electricity retailers with output from the generators to also be sold off privately.

This is the first round of industrial action in the campaign to block the new privatisation plans of the Rees Government.

An earlier plan to sell of both electricity retailers and generators brought down former Premier Morris Iemma, who had backed those plans strongly, along with his Treasurer Michael Costa.

Iemma was replaced as Premier by Nathan Rees, who has introduced a more modest privatisation proposal. While selling the electricity utilities, the Government does not propose to sell the generators into private hands, just the 'rights' attached to the output produced by the generators.

Today's mass meeting was addressed by State MPs John Kaye of the Greens and also Independent MP Greg Piper.

"This is the first shot in what will be a long campaign," Mr Kaye said.

A spokesman for Delta Electricity, which operates the Vales Point power station, said operational staff remain on site, and output from the power station will not be interrupted.

Unions oppose Sydney Ferry privatisation

Privatisation about self interest not the public interest

28 March 2009 MUA Sydney Branch

The Maritime Union has warned that the latest calls for privatisation, both by the NSW Opposition and a former Ferry executive are not in the public interest.

"At a time when we are all reeling from the unfettered deregulation of financial markets, and governments are having to bail out banks and private operators with the public purse, people should be more aware than ever that selling off our most valuable public assets to private operators is not in the public interest," said MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Warren Smith. "We just can't afford to hold onto these defunct beliefs. Sydney Ferries and ports are too important assets tohand over. We have to keep key public assets in public hands."

Mr Smith was responding to reports in today's Sydney Morning Herald by a former Ferries executive and the leader of the Opposition that the Ferries and the states ports should go under the hammer.

Olav Groot, the general manager of assets at Sydney Ferries Corporation, has jumped ship to one of the main bidders for the Ferry service, at the same time advocating the ferry services should be delivered by the private sector," said Mr Smith. "That speaks for itself. Presumably Mr Groot means they should go to the undisclosed company he is now working for. Well that would be in Mr Groot's best interest but not necessarily in the public interest."

Mr Smith warned that handing over control of Sydney Ferries had been tried twice previously and twice the State Government had been forced to come in and rescue the service - in 1951 and 1974.

"There's a lesson in history," said Mr Smith. "Let's learn from it. Private operators have failed to operate Sydney Ferries in the past and they will fail in the future. Sydney Ferries are an essential part of this city's public transport mix.

Mr Smith said the government would be serving the public better if it worked with Sydney Ferries to better coordinate the service with other transport services and recognise the environmental benefits of ferry patronage.

"World shipping is deregulated and privatised and that's why we end up with the sort of disasters we had off the Queensland coast recently.

We need more regulation not less," said Mr Smith. "And as for Mr O'Farrell's announcement today that he will put the state's public assets to a fire sale, well that's just the sort of sell everything to our business mates that will never serve the public."

Refugee Benefit Concert 5 April

Singing the Spirit Home

celebrating the songs of Eric Bogle

‘..And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda..’

Refugee Benefit Concert

2pm - Sunday 5th April, 2009
York Theatre - Seymour Centre
City Rd & Cleveland Sts Chippendale

featuring
Eric Bogle & Colcannon

• Chris While & Julie Matthews (UK)
• Martyn Wyndham-Read (UK)
• John Williamson
• Graeme Connors
• Judy Small

All performers are donating their time.

Please help us and honour them. We need your help.
If you can buy a donor’s ticket -Thank you.

Tickets : Standard $40
Supporter $140 ($100 tax deductible)
Keen Supporter $240 ($200 tax deductible)
Big Heart Seats $540 ($500 tax deductible)
Bookings: www.seymourcentre.com.au or (02) 9351 7940

Enquiries: Kate Maclurcan 02 9810 5826

For more information, go to: www.asylumseekersfoundation.com
supported by UnitingCare NSW.ACT & Leichhardt Council