Legislation allowing the 99-year lease — effectively privatisation — of the majority of the NSW electricity network passed through state parliament on June 3. The bill was passed through the Legislative Council, after more than 60 amendments were debated, with the support of Rev Fred Nile's Christian Democrats.
Labor and the Greens opposed the bill. Labor leader in the Legislative Council Adam Searle said on June 3 that the outcome showed a debasing of parliamentary process:
"Worst of all, the Reverend Nile revealed that the entire process of the parliamentary inquiry into the electricity transaction and the legislative process was just a complete charade entered into between himself and Premier [Mike] Baird," Searle said.
Baird claims the sale will reap $20 billion in revenue, to be spent on a range of infrastructure projects — primarily the monstrous WestConnex toll road scheme through western Sydney. Privatised rail projects, such as the North West Sydney Rail Link, will also be funded from the proceeds of the sale of the state's most valuable public asset.
Greens MLC John Kaye said the outcome was a loss for the people of NSW: "There isn't anything really in the way for upsides in this legislation for anybody in New South Wales, other than the multinational utility corporations getting control of this state's energy future."
The Greens lodged a formal protest on June 4 against the passage of the "poles and wires" sell-off legislation. The protest with the NSW governor stated that the law would: "Deny the people of NSW control over their own energy future, with adverse consequences for the development of clean energy technologies, employment opportunities, household power bills and state revenue collection; ... are unnecessary because capital for infrastructure development can be raised by other sustainable and less damaging means; [and that] the case for these transactions and the analysis of their impacts on the economy, state revenue and economy costs ... is not well founded."
Meanwhile, power industry unions in NSW are considering their legal and industrial options following the government's failure to consult with the workforces of Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Transgrid ahead of their privatisation.
"Before the [March state] election, Mike Baird told the people of NSW that he would put protections in place to ensure a new owner didn't slash local jobs, as occurred in Victoria when that state privatised electricity assets," Electrical Trade Union state secretary Steve Butler said on May 29.
"Before the election, Mike Baird said that he would protect electricity jobs threatened by his privatisation plan, but now after the election he is refusing to consult on this very issue."
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