NSW PREMIER Chris Minns has cited the October 2024 Broken Hill power outages during a tense Parliamentary question time discussion regarding the privatisation of the state’s energy network.
In the question time held on Wednesday, February 19, Mr Minns was asked by Member for Cessnock, Clayton Barr, if he could update the House on the impacts of the former Liberal National Government’s decision to privatise some of the state’s energy network.
“We saw in recent months an outage in Broken Hill, an electricity outage for 36 hours,” Mr Minns said.
“The Mayor of Broken Hill was asked about this on radio on October 23, the question was, ‘What do you think Tom; what does this say about investment, or indeed, disinvestment, in regional areas of Australia?’
“A fair question, if your town is without electricity.
“Mayor Tom Kennedy replied, ‘one of the problems with privatisation is when anything is privatised, a lot of companies look at their bottom line, where they can save money, they will save money.’
“Mr. Speaker, what he was saying is, at the expense of the people of regional NSW.”
Mr Minns continued to slam the previous government’s privatisation record.
“If you look at the privatisation record of the previous government, it is shameful,” he said.
“Look at just the economics of it.”
Mr Minns said that the Labor Party had warned of prices rising due to privatisation.
“We went election after election saying prices would go up as a result of these privatisations, and guess what has happened Mr. Speaker?
“Prices have gone up through the roof.
“And it’s not just electricity assets Mr. Speaker.
“Look at it time and time again: Ports sold off, prices through the roof. Electricity sold off, prices through the roof. Our toll roads sold off, prices through the roof.”
The Legislative Assembly at Parliament House erupted into chants and raised voices, followed by Mr Minns granted a time extension of two minutes, which ended with accusations of the Opposition allegedly wanting to sell off more public assets.
“Not only do we have to deal with the privatisation of government assets, prices going through the roof, but their secret plan, their secret agenda, is to flog off the rest as well,” he said.
“Mr Speaker, when will they learn?”
