No river of gold from electricity sale

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Claims by the business lobby that a river of gold will flow to the NSW Government if it pushes ahead with electricity privatisation have today been proved wrong by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU).

The ETU have highlighted that the NSW government power companies have current debts totalling $16 Billion meaning that any sale will only deliver a small one off payment, bringing into question the value of any sale.

“Right now the publicly owned power companies have debts totalling $16 billion meaning that the NSW Government would receive a miniscule one off payment of $5 billion should they proceed with electricity privatisation” said the ETU’s spokesperson Steve Butler.

“It is clear that electricity assets are worth much more to the people of NSW in government hands than if there were flogged off for a couple of billion dollars to a private company.” Mr Butler said “The NSW Government currently receives in excess of $2.2 billion every single year in the form of a dividend which is used to fund education, health, roads and transport across NSW. “Should the NSW Government push ahead with electricity privatisation they will receive the equivalent of two years’ worth of dividends from any sale while losing $2.2 billion in annual dividends for future generations.” said Mr Butler.

Further claims have been made that the government will save money by not having to invest billions of dollars in the future of this essential service, however the ETU has pointed out that this investment will be required regardless of who owns the network. “Some people are claiming that the Government can save billions of dollars by eliminating future network investment however if a private company buys this essential service any investment cost will simply be transferred to the mums and dads of NSW that use electricity.” said Mr Butler.

“The NSW community do not want their electricity cost to go up unnecessarily and they do not want the government to sell off an essential service that is already owned by the people of NSW.” Mr Butler finished.