Poles and Wires Privatisation - Electricity Distribution Network Sell-Off in NSW

Interesting to see in media reports today that National Party MPs opposed to the sale of the State's poles and wires are calling for a referendum on the issue, saying this is the only way that Premier Baird will be able to claim a mandate for the privatisation of the electricity distribution network. This has been my position from the outset, as stated in this press release of April 22, issued following Baird's sudden rise to power and the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle.
http://www.gregpiper1.com/images/2014-04-22_Hunter_Region_the_loser_in_Cabinet_reshuffle_-_web_version.pdf


To claim an election win as a mandate is disingenuous, particularly if the electors haven't been fully informed of the implications. It is likely that the next election will see a "natural" reduction in seats held by the Coalition, maybe 10 to 15 or worse if they have more bad news such as from the ICAC. A 20 seat loss (the worst case scenario) would still give the Coalition a majority of 7 in the Legislative Assembly.

I can't accept that a win where there with a reduced number of seats can be used to claim a mandate. These assets have been built up over many generations, they return a healthy dividend to NSW and are akin to Blue Chip shares giving a safe and reliable return while also keeping them away from the pressure to maximise commercial returns for the benefit of shareholders. The poles and wires are a natural monopoly and as such any claim of downward price pressure from privatisation is a furphy as there will be no true competition.
 


To claim an election win as a mandate is disingenuous, particularly if the electors haven't been fully informed of the implications. It is likely that the next election will see a "natural" reduction in seats held by the Coalition, maybe 10 to 15 or worse if they have more bad news such as from the ICAC. A 20 seat loss (the worst case scenario) would still give the Coalition a majority of 7 in the Legislative Assembly. I can't accept that a win where there is a reduced number of seats can be used to claim a mandate. 

These assets have been built up over many generations, they return a healthy dividend to NSW and are akin to Blue Chip shares giving a safe and reliable return while also keeping them away from the pressure to maximise commercial returns for the benefit of shareholders.

The poles and wires are a natural monopoly and as such any claim of downward price pressure from privatisation is a furphy as there will be no true competition.
It is good that there are some members of the National Party willing to speak out against this part/full sale/lease or other clever mechanism, because even though many members of the Liberals will feel similarly, they are unlikely to openly oppose it, having seen what such a defeat led to with the ALP and then Premier, Morris Iemma.

Anyway, good on the Member for Monaro, John Barillaro, for saying what most people in NSW would agree with.

Lake Macquarie Needs a Suburb!

Please follow this Link to download a pdf file of my report and recommendation on creating a suburb named Lake Macquarie.

Barry O'Farrells First Fifty Days

The Telegraph is running a poll on the NSW Government's first 50 days.  Fascinating to read some of the responses that pander to the papers view that Barry could change the world in that time. How is he going? Overall I thought that he was doing pretty well.  With 69 members in the LA and Labor with 20 (cross bench 4) the dynamic of the Chamber is completely changed and indeed, quite surreal.
I'm sure there's lots of Coalition members that were never expected to win and that having so many backbenchers while at face value might seem great for the Government, will in time produce plenty of problems.  Until that occurs though Barry will be able to observe and draw on some new talent, and I think he has plenty there.

The Government has gotten on with making many changes and honouring promises made while in Opposition.  One of the first things done was to put a hold on the use of Part 3A of the EP&A Act and forecast a start to reviewing ro rewriting the planning legislation.  Long overdue and very welcome.
If there is one thing that they have done wrong it has to be the un-forecast changes to the Solar Bonus Scheme.  This change which will see customers under the scheme have their rebate reduced by 20c a kw/hr is a worry not because of the reasonableness of the rate, but because it is a breach of faith and breach of contract with all those people who signed up to the deal.  Many of those were people who couldn't possibly have afforded to it without the 60c deal offered and assured by the previous government.

The Labor Party clearly got the scheme badly wrong - it was unaffordable, but how you then deal with it says a lot about the Government.  Labor got it wrong in the first place, the Coalition have got the solution badly wrong as well.  Tough as it would have been, a contract should be honoured; and to do otherwise diminishes the Coalition.  For a Government that was doing well overall it seems like a very bad early decision.

Labor's Negative Campaign for Lake Macquarie

Labor candidate, Marcus Mariani, themed his election campaign from the start with a vitriolic attack on me on his website.  His attack was a based on a mass of demonstrably incorrect statements and "facts".  He has been advised by many people, including from his own party, that his material was incorrect.

Not to be deterred, the candidate has issued a newsletter attacking me over what I have achieved in the last four year. He claims that it has been four years of inaction yet on the same page states that Labor has never forgotten Lake Macquarie and that they have invested tens of millions of dollars in Lake Macquarie.  It may have been too obvious for Mr Mariani but much of this investment has occurred while I was the Independent member. The fact is that Lake Macquarie maintained its overall share of state funds invested in capital projects and services during this last term. This success during the last four years must be inconvenient for Mr Mariani.

The Labor candidate also falls back to old rhetoric of attacking me for having two roles and in my role of Mayor having lead the Lake Macquarie City Council into millions of dollars of debt and wanting to cut library services.  At this point Mr Mariani is showing his desperation and at the same time disqualifying himself as a reasonable person to contest public office in the future.  He is either unable to understand the facts or unable to tell the truth on these matters.   Council does carry debt, and yes, it has increased.  The debt is considered debt and is used to fund property acquisitions and capital projects.  The test of what is appropriate is one's ability to pay off the debt, measured by Debt Service Ratio (DSR).  LMCC's DSR remains less than 6% (the amount of annual budget needed to service the debt) while conventional wisdom certainly allows this figure to safely reach or exceed 10%.  LMCC is financially solid in this regard.

His other reference to wishing to cut library services is also untrue.  LMCC is seriously looking at library needs into the future. As the population ages, generations change, technology advances, needs change.  Our review is to ensure that we do not continue to have increasing costs while having reduced customers.  Labor councillors have also supported this review.

With unsubstantiated allegations about damage to his signs and an appeal for his supporters to use "reasonable force" to apprehend the culprits (noting many of his signs were illegally placed across footpaths), this candidate has shown that he really has nothing of substance to campaign on and that he is willing to say almost anything to advance his cause.

In 2007 my election delivered Lake Macquarie a "swinging seat".  While we have done well in the last four years there are "big ticket" items we need.  This election is the chance to capitalise on being a "swinging seat"!

Election Flyer - Policy Items

My Election Policy brochure as shown below can be downloaded as a pdf file from my website under Election 2011.  Click here to be directed to the location.

Labor Ads - Is Kristina Believable?

Give credit to NSW Labor for putting together a slick advertising campaign. The "Presidential" style campaign run by Maurice Iemma worked against all odds - Kristina Keneally's new ads which were run back to back were high on style, low on substance.
How can she be believed? The arrogance of a campaign that totally ignores the betrayal perpetrated on NSW by the Labor Government over the last four years is breathtaking. For Kristina Keneally to introduce a fear campaign about the privatization of Hunter Water and Sydney Water is the height of hypocrisy after her Government's incompetent and highly unpopular disposal of publicly owned energy assets. How can we believe anything they say when State Labor also sold off the highly lucrative NSW Lotteries?
These policies weren't part of Labor's policy platform going into the 2007 election and there is no reason to believe that Labor is listening to the people now but rather that they are saying whatever they believe they need to say to cling to power.

Development Policy

A real concern for residents of NSW is the changes that have occurred to development matters.  With an increasing attack on local planning decisions it should be remembered that the form of our communities has mostly been delivered by local decisions from councillors elected by and answerable to their communities.  Most residents agree that we live an enviable lifestyle in one of the best areas in NSW - the arguments against local decision making just don't stack up yet the NSW Labor Government have been ruthless in transferring decisions to unaccountable and unrepresentative bodies.

Development Planning and Approval

I have a long record of supporting appropriate development in Lake Macquarie – balancing the demands of population growth, job creation, community development, and the environment is a complex task that has overall been well delivered in Lake Macquarie.  Many of the most controversial proposals and approved developments have been taken from local decision makers at Lake Macquarie City Council as the NSW Labor government has increasingly been influenced by the development industry in their attack on local government across NSW.  The NSW Labor government has introduced a variety of ways to centralise decisions away from local communities.  This trend must be reversed.

Part 3A

It is rare that many people would know the name of a particular section of any legislation let alone the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A Act). Part 3A of the EP&A Act may not be well read but its name is well known and the overwhelming reason for that is that communities across NSW resent the way in which it has been used and abused by a state government increasingly inclined to remove local decision making. Part 3A of the EP&A Act has become so abused it must be removed.

Part 3A was created to deal with development that was truly of State significance.  Things such as water and gas pipelines, power stations, mines, port facilities and other major regional infrastructure are appropriately dealt with at this level.  The use of these powers for residential subdivisions, shopping centres and the like has removed the decisions on too many matters from local representatives elected by community. 

Part 3A must be repealed and replaced with a mechanism that restores decision making on local matters to the local community while allowing the State to refer truly state significant matters to an appropriate forum such as the Planning and Assessment Commission.

Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs)

JRPPs were established by former Planning Minister Frank Sartor following a sustained campaign by many in the Development Industry to remove decision making from Councils.  Minister Sartor set a value threshold of $40 million and above for matters to be referred to JRPPS but this was quickly changed to $10 million by his replacement, Kristina Keneally.

Joint Regional Planning Panels have five members of whom only two are nominated by a council.  The members are appointed by the Minister and make use of the local council’s resources to assess Development Proposals.

Councils have generally dealt very well with development in their local areas. Councillors are members of the local community and are contactable by and answerable to their local residents. The use of JRPPs to determine applications is inappropriate and says more about the influence the development lobby has wielded with the current state government than it does about the councils that have lost these powers.

Councils cannot be excused from any responsibility to address legitimate concerns about their performance; these need to be addressed in a positive way, not by the process of continual removal of local representatives from decisions about their community. Joint Regional Planning Panels should be disbanded or their role changed to one of an advisory nature.

Local Government Planning Consent Powers

There are times when a particular council is identified as not performing appropriately or well in considering planning matters. A current method of dealing with this is to remove Planning Consent powers from that Council for a period of time and for those decisions to be dealt with by a Planning Panel appointed by the Minister. Current examples include councils at Wagga Wagga and Cessnock.

This process removes responsibility for decision making from elected representatives and further distances local residents from the decision making process – the panel members are not as accessible to residents as Councillors and they are not accountable to the community.

While the appointment of Planning Panels may clear backlogs of Development Applications and associated decisions, their appointment does nothing to improve the originally identified problem with the Council.  That is why I have put before the Parliament a Bill which addresses the original concerns and at the same time strengthens the administrative and decision making process within the particular council.

The ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT AMENDMENT (MAINTENANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT CONSENT POWERS) BILL 2010 would enable legislation that strengthens local decision making and is aimed at identifying and remedying problems in a positive way rather than using a method seen as punitive to the Council and alienating to residents.  The Bill allows for quick action to be taken on the original concerns yet is positive in building the capacity of local decision makers. The text of my introductory speech on the Bill can be read at: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20101203007