Earlier this year, the Premier announced he’s seeking a mandate at the March 2015 state election for his plan to privatise NSW electricity. But this week, anew report was released that drives a stake through the heart of Mike Baird’s plan to sell off our — the public’s — poles and wires.
The independent McKell Institute (which Mike Baird has said has a “proud history” and whose work “we need to do more of") looked into the government’s privatisation plan and the report title sums up their conclusions nicely: selling off our poles and wires means NSW has Nothing to gain, plenty to lose. In short, if Mike Baird wins the election, NSW loses.
Add your name to the petition now and tell Mike Baird to stop the sell-off:http://stoptheselloff.org.au/
The McKell Institute analysis concluded there’s “no logical case for privatisation” backed up by a number of findings:
- The state currently earns $1.7 billion each year from NSW electricity Transmission and Distribution, and selling our poles and wires is likely to hurt the state budget over the medium-to-long-term
- NSW’s public electricity assets operate more efficiently than those privatised in other states
- Selling off poles and wires doesn’t cut costs for business and would actually increase costs for us — consumers — by more than $100 per year
- Rather than reinvesting revenue from electricity into improving the system, privatisation would mean revenues would line the pockets of investors, whereas state assets focus on the citizens they serve
With so much evidence exposing the Baird government’s disinformation, the report “recommends that the NSW Government abandon its plans to privatise.” That’s exactly what those who know the industry best and look after our electricity assets — the Electrical Trades Union — have been saying for months and why they’ve launched the “Stop the Sell Off” campaign.
Add your name to more than one thousand concerned citizens who’ve signed the petition, and together, we can make sure Mike Baird has no mandate to sell off our poles and wires and instead keep jobs safe, prices low, and ensure public assets continue serving the citizens of this great state, rather than lining the pockets of big business.
In Union,
Mark Lennon
Secretary
Unions NSW
