NSW Power privatisation defeated (1 Viewer)

[Rafy]

The Nationals and Liberal Party will vote against the privatisation bill. With a number of Labor MPs crossing the floor, the privatisation proposal is dead.

The government will avoid the rare spectacle of defeat on the floor of the lower house by introducing the bill into the Legislative Council first with a vote tonight. If it is defeated there, the Assembly will not consider it.

Liberals pull the plug on power privatisation

BARRY O'Farrell will deliver a humiliating blow to Morris Iemma's leadership today when he blocks the Government's plans to privatise the state's electricity industry and forces the Premier to back down from the proposal.

Mr O'Farrell's decision will derail the Government's infrastructure spending plans and leave Mr Iemma's leadership in serious doubt.

But it will also leave Mr O'Farrell exposed to attack from the business community, which has been strong supporter of the privatisation, and weaken the Liberal Party's ability to attract corporate donations.

It is understood Mr O'Farrell told his Liberal Party room yesterday that it was too early to support the plan because the Federal Government was yet to finalise the details of its emissions trading scheme at the end of this year.
Mr O'Farrell also told the MPs that he did not feel confident that Labor could be trusted to properly spend the proceeds of the sale.

It is believed Mr O'Farrell reiterated the Liberals' in-principle support for privatisation, but stressed that it was too early to endorse the timing and sale process proposed by the Government.

While it is understood Mr O'Farrell did not have unanimous support in his party room, the majority of his MPs supported his stance.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Iemma said he would walk away from privatisation if the bill was defeated in the upper house today.

"There's no plan B, we'll have to deal with the consequences of this having been defeated and respond. It's not going to be a case that we're going to be deferring this and coming back," Mr Iemma said.

Last night, the Treasurer, Michael Costa, said he would introduce the bill to the upper house today despite the Opposition's position.[...]

 

[zstar]

wow! Morris Iemma is more conservative than the liberal party.

What's going on?

Black is White and White is Black.

 

[incentivation]

Not unexpected. A divided Coalition would look worse.

 

[chicky_pie]

Barry cares deeply for the people of N.S.W

 

[banco55]

Costa will be throwing things around his office about now.

 

[Enteebee]

basically without the funding from privatisation etc iemma's going to be in utter deep shit come election time.

 

[withoutaface]

Fucking disgraceful decision by O'Farrell.

 

[Enteebee]

O'Farrell will privatise electricity. He believes the funds of electricity privatisation will be squandered by Iemma. He is not against electricity privatisation, he is against wasting more money on a government that in his opinion has proven its self incompitent.

 

[withoutaface]

Do you really think he's going to get the support from the ALP in the upper house to do so after this?

 

[Enteebee]

Maybe? Either way I'd say he sees it as more important to get elected than to do something to help Iemma get himself (and the state) out of the mess - Even if this means the privatisation will never occur.

 

[jb_nc]

Yeah Liberals wtf.

 

[spiny norman]

Clearly it's politics, though I actually think it's a mistake in that sense.

Opposing it is surely tolling the bell on Costa and Iemma - they'll both have to go into their corners and die. But, were it to pass, NSW Labor could've been terribly divided and be in a terrible situation.

So I question his rationale.

 

[withoutaface]

Clearly it's politics, though I actually think it's a mistake in that sense.

Opposing it is surely tolling the bell on Costa and Iemma - they'll both have to go into their corners and die. But, were it to pass, NSW Labor could've been terribly divided and be in a terrible situation.

So I question his rationale.

Exactly. The power sell off should've been the Coalition's opportunity to drive a wedge through the ALP, not the other way around.

 

[Enteebee]

Idk I think not being able to fund a bunch of infrastructure projects is more likely to mean the public won't vote for the ALP than the party its self being in a muck... the party has always been rather dishevelled. I don't think it's necessarily a bad decision politically, though as far as the welfare of the state goes it definitely is.

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

If the liberals made the decision because of the overwhelming negativity amongst the NSW voter: Good. I may not agree with 80% of the NSW population but that would be an admirable stand.

If the liberals made the decision because of politics: One of the most shameful moves ever made in Aus Pol history.

 

[Garygaz]

If the Liberals, from the very start, had opposed the bill, then they'd have some kind of credibility in saying what they are. It has politics written all over it, not a very implicit move. I know it's not popular, but everything becomes more efficient once it's privatised, even though the average Joe sitting at home has the thought process of 'Oh the gov is privatising, everyone will lose jobs and the private sector is going to inflate prices by 400%!'

He's getting rid of a burden on the government as well as bringing more funding for crucial infrastructure. O'Farrell would do the exact same thing in his position. Fucking unions, full of retarded cock heads.

 

[Slidey]

I know it's not popular, but everything becomes more efficient once it's privatised

That's absolute bullshit. Lots of things become more efficient once privatised. That doesn't always make it the correct thing to do, and the fact that it doesn't work sometimes further compounds that.

Nothing shits me off more than somebody claiming the free market solves all problems everywhere with its invisible hand.

 

[Enteebee]

Barry O'Farrell openly admitted it was in a sense politics. He doesn't think the gains from privatization are worth it considering that he thinks the ALP will merely squander the money from it to help them get re-elected so that they can then continue to mismanage NSW. If you think that:

a) The Liberal Party will manage the NSW Economy better than Labor Has.
b) The Labor Party is likely to squander gains made from the privatisation and this will increase their chances of getting re-elected
c) There are no other significant factors and,
d) The loss of the Labor Party's ability to essentially squander this money is less than the increased risk of damage to be caused/possible gains lost due to the Labor Party being re-elected due to the availability of these funds.

Then you should support Barry O'Farrell.

 

[Garygaz]

That's absolute bullshit. Lots of things become more efficient once privatised. That doesn't always make it the correct thing to do, and the fact that it doesn't work sometimes further compounds that.

Nothing shits me off more than somebody claiming the free market solves all problems everywhere with its invisible hand.

Okay, let me rephrase, about 95% of all privatised industries become more efficent. Qantas, Commonwealth bank, Medibank, Telstra, MBF. Yay, lets have everything controlled by government and watch everything fail in any attempt to be productive or efficent, AKA the power industry at the moment.

edit: or wait, are they even trying to be productive? no, because there is no real benefit for public sector workers to do their job well, they aren't on contracts and they can sit around doing jack shit. Private: Workers on contracts and have bonuses for productivity, hence, working better.

 

[banco55]

That doesn't really make sense. They are not going to spend so much on government advertising and pork barreling that they require selling of the state's power infrastructure to fund it. They are still going to spend about the same on trying to get re-elected and there are countless ways they can finance this.

Regarding point (a), what will they actually do differently that will result in better economic prospects for NSW?

For one thing they will hopefully be more uninhibited about going after the bums that run the transport unions.