THE NSW government’s approval of a multi-billion dollar partial sale of its electricity network will only benefit regional areas, according to Member for Bathurst and Minister for Local Government Paul Toole.
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Premier Mike Baird and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner announced yesterday that the state cabinet had endorsed a proposal to take the 99-year lease of 49 per cent of the NSW electricity network to next year’s election.
However, as foreshadowed, Essential Energy – which services rural and regional areas including Bathurst – will be exempted from the sale after opposition from National MPs concerned about job losses.
Mr Toole said the reform was expected to release up to $20 billion for new infrastructure investment in NSW, of which 30 per cent, or approximately $6 billion, will be spent in regional NSW.
“Taking Essential Energy out of the lease protects regional jobs, protects regional communities and ensures the continuing reliability of the network ,” he said.
“While the other networks predominantly cover city areas, regional NSW will still get 30 per cent of the funds from the leasing agreement.”
The lease would release funds for a $1 billion Regional Roads Fund, a $1 billion Regional Water Fund and a statewide $2 billion Schools and Hospitals Building Fund.
“Six billion dollars can fix a lot of hospitals, repair lots of roads and improve lots of schools,” Mr Toole said.
He said Essential Energy would continue to have a large regional presence and it would still bring in dividends to the state which would be reinvested into services.
He added Mr Baird had said the lease would be subject to strict conditions, including a guarantee on network prices and reliability for NSW households.
County Labor candidate for Bathurst Cassandra Coleman accused Mr Toole of selling out his electorate despite the exclusion of Essential Energy.
“The Nationals have sold out the bush and Mr Toole has sold out the electorate,” she said.
“The NSW Government currently gets approximately $3.2 billion a year in dividends from our power assets.
“The sale of our electricity network would yield a net figure of about $8 billion.
“Do the maths – the electricity network generates that amount of income to the people of NSW in less than three years. It would be financially reckless to sell the network.”
Ms Coleman said she was concerned that a partial sell-off would still lead to job losses, poorer service quality and higher electricity prices.
“Supporting a partial sale of our electricity network will be like Telstra all over again – once you sell one part of it to the private sector, you are starting on the road to selling all of the network.”
She added that Essential Energy did not cover the whole electorate and said other electricity companies provided jobs in the region.
Bathurst has around 270 people employed by Essential Energy and 45 by Endeavour Energy. There are also a number of Bathurst residents who work at the TransGrid hub in Orange.
