NSW POLL: 60% Oppose Electrictity Selloff

Out of more than 27,000 respondents to the online survey, 60 per cent oppose Premier Mike Baird's plan to lease the electricity transmission network to the private sector, compared to 31 per cent who support it.

The results are divided along party lines.

Labor voters are most opposed to the plan (84 per cent) followed by Greens voters (76 per cent).

A quarter of Liberal voters do not support it and close to a third would prefer the Government raise taxes to pay for infrastructure.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said it was a "significant minority".

"The task for the Government in the election campaign is to solidify those people, to make sure they don't wander away and vote for someone else on that issue," he said.

Opposition highest in regional areas

Mr Baird plans to lease half of the state's electricity assets to the private sector for 99 years.

That includes 100 per cent of Transgrid, which operates high voltage transmission lines across NSW, and about 50 per cent of Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy, which together provide power in Sydney and Sydney's Greater West, Central Coast, Hunter Region and Newcastle, Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and the Illawarra.

The major rural and regional distributor, Essential Energy, is excluded from the plan but opposition in country areas is among the highest in the state (60 per cent).

ABC Pollster Anthony Green said there was a perception there that power bills could rise.

"All country people are aware there are certain things that cost more in the bush. If you raise privatisation of the electricity network you get that concern; is it going to cost more?" he said.

Preview – Millers Point One Year On – FORCED OUT

Malcolm Fraser's plan for new party

Mr Fraser, who died aged 84, would not have led the party but would have driven its policy agenda. Fairfax Media understands Mr Fraser had developed a written draft policy platform for the party that included:

• ending Australia's close military alliance with the United States
• a closer relationship with South-East Asian nations
• ending the offshore processing of asylum seekers
• stronger anti-corruption and transparency laws
• tighter regulation of the sale of arable land

Mr Fraser discussed the party with confidants late last year.

In his last book, Dangerous Allies, published last year, Mr Fraser argued that Australia should become a "strategically independent country" and that the ANZUS Treaty with the United States was possibly the biggest threat to Australia's security.

"If a war between China and the United States were to occur with a continuation of current policies, it would be very hard, if not impossible, for Australia to become involved," he wrote.

Mr Fraser advocated closing down the US military base in Darwin and the Pine Gap communications facility

Mr Fraser had been a staunch defender of the US alliance during the Cold War but changed his view radically in his later years.

Mr Fraser was also deeply unhappy with the tough asylum-seeker policies of both major parties, including the use of mandatory detention and the offshore processing of asylum seekers.

Last year Mr Fraser tweeted in support of the creation of a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

As prime minister, Mr Fraser introduced several measures to increase transparency of government decision making. These included the creation of the Commonwealth Ombudsman in 1977 to handle complaints about government agencies. He also introduced Australia's first freedom of information laws and created the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Malcolm Fraser dies aged 84

Malcolm Fraser’s death on Friday comes five months after the death of his friend Gough Whitlam.

Despite the deep antagonisms and partisan divisions of 1975, Fraser and Whitlam eventually came to terms and formed an enduring friendship.

In office, Fraser was a staunch conservative on economic policies, an opponent of deregulation – and he was was criticised by his colleagues for lacking reform zeal. But he continued many of Labor’s progressive reforms.

In 1976 he established the family court of Australia and federal court of Australia; granted the Northern Territory self-government; passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act; created the position of federal ombudsman and established the ABC’s FM radio service. The next year, he established the National Aboriginal Conference and SBS.

In 1979 the Fraser government established the Australian Refugee Advisory Council to advise it on the settlement of refugees – many of whom had been arriving as “boat people” from Vietnam since 1978.

After criticising the Liberal party’s direction during the years of the Howard government, Fraser finally quit the party when Tony Abbott came to the opposition leadership, unhappy with Abbott’s rejection of emissions trading. He said the Liberal party was no longer a liberal party but instead a conservative party.

Fraser campaigned assiduously for human rights and attacked the party’s stance on immigration and refugees.

ACTU: Big business makes a grab for wages, conditions and rights at work

20 March 2015

Unions have always said the Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations was a Trojan horse to bring back WorkChoices and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has provided the proof.

The BCA submission aims to cut people's penalty rates and wages, make them work longer hours and weekends for less money, make it easier to sack people and take away their rights at work.

A panel comprised of a retired Judge, a Professor of Labour Law and an economist reviewed the Fair Work Act just three years ago and found our industrial relations system works – but yet again we have an extremist employer lobby group trying to dismantle the system and take away rights at work.

Key facts:

Working patterns have not substantially changed as the business lobby claim:

In 1997, 69.7% of Australians worked from Monday to Friday; in 2012 this figure was 68.9%. The fact is that the majority of Australians work Monday to Friday.

Some of the most vulnerable employees rely on penalty rates in Awards to make ends meet:

• 1.86 million Australians are reliant on Award wages
• Almost 40% of works on Awards are employed in retail, accommodation and food services – the industries where employers are trying to cut penalty rates first
• Senior staff in retail and hospitality would still receive less than Australia’s average full time weekly earnings even if they worked a full time week at double time for every hour worked

WorkChoices gave the employers all sorts of ‘flexibility’ and in the case of AWAs – individual contracts - most removed basic award conditions:

65% of individual agreements removed penalty rates
70% of individual agreements removed shift loading
68% of individual agreements removed annual leave loading
50% of individual agreements removed public holiday pay

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver

“The BCA wants to cut people's penalty rates and wages, make them work longer hours and weekends for less money, make it easier to sack people and take away their rights at work.

“Flexibility is just the word employers’ use for cutting wages and conditions and workers know this.

“Cutting penalty rates or the minimum wage has nothing to do with job creation or productivity - it is about cutting people’s pay packets.

“Unions have always said the Productivity Commission inquiry was a Trojan horse to bring back WorkChoices and here is the proof - an extremist employer lobby group trying to dismantle Australia's entire workplace system to take away people rights and slash their wages.

“There are millions of Australians who cannot afford the sudden pay cut that will come with having their penalty rates and wages cut.”