When public assets are gifted to private operators, the actual clients change from the users of the asset to the shareholders.
Against the interests of the people of NSW, Premier Morris Iemma intends to give away Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy to private owners who will cut services, jobs and raise prices to benefit the small number of shareholders. The NSW government then takes the money from the sale of the asset, which rightfully belongs to the people of NSW, using the ill-gotten gains to bribe NSW voters in the next election… with their very own money.
NSW Labor obviously haven’t learnt a thing from the sale of Telstra, the failure of the Cross City Tunnel, the rapidly failing Lane Cove Tunnel nor the most obvious examples, the failed privatisations of electricity generation in South Australia and Victoria, both which have dramatically raised electricity charges in those locales, with no improvement in service provision. These debacles have also resulted in huge financial losses, even to the new shareholders. Nothing they don’t deserve.
When will Iemma get a bit of honesty about him and admit that he’s more interested in fattening up a few already rich investors, rather than serving the needs of all the electric power consumers of NSW? When will Barry O’Farrell admit that Iemma is actually a Liberal Party plant?
When this grave mistake begins to hit NSW residents in the hip pocket, no matter how loudly the residents protest, it won’t be reversible- at least not without paying massive profits to the new owners of NSW power generation facilities in a repurchase.
Ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.
-weez
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Everyone act surprised, mkay?
Comment by weez 12.19.07 @ 5:12 amMajority oppose power sell-off
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A survey of 1011 NSW voters, conducted by Essential Research for Unions NSW, found 85 per cent of people oppose privatising the electricity supply, while 96 per cent fear private operators would force up the cost of electricity.
Eighty-five per cent of respondents believe that, if the electricity supply is privatised, it should remain in Australian ownership, concerned that local jobs, especially in regional NSW, will disappear.
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