When Bob Carr and Michael Egan tried to reform the electricity industry in 1997 they were soundly defeated by union heavyweights John Della Bosca and Michael Costa who were well supported by left-wing geriatrics in the NSW Parliament. ‘The Hogg/Egan proposition is a suicide note to the Australian Labor Party’ thundered Ian McDonald.
Carr and Egan saw the sale as a $35 billion financial bonanza as they approached the end of their first term in government. But the dinosaurs in the union movement and the political parasites in the left wing of their party torpedoed the deal.
Fast forward to 2008. Carr and Egan have been consigned to the dustbin of political history and their 1995 A-team have jumped ship to make way for John Della Bosca, Michael Costa, Frank Sartor, Joe Tripodi and Reba Meagher. This mob plucked Maurice Iemma from obscurity and installed him as Premier.
The lure of Ministerial perks were too much for avowed lefties to resist and Ian McDonald quickly traded principle for the trappings of office.
Unfortunately the boom economic years of the Howard government have been squandered by the States. During the past 13 years the NSW Labor Government have enjoyed the fruits of the Olympics Games, a record property boom, windfall revenue from gambling taxes and a GST bonanza.
Despite this we have a derelict public transport system, daily gridlock on our roads, a hospital crisis and decaying infrastructure. We are the highest taxing State in the country and business is relocating interstate in record numbers due to draconian Occupational Health and Safety laws and excessive Workers Compensation extortion.
Looking after union mates and incompetent public servants has taken priority over strategic investment in essential services.
This NSW government has been in power for too long. They are bereft of talent, ideas and money. But power corrupts and principle is easily discarded in desperate circumstances. So much so that the most vocal opponents of the sale in 1997 – Costa, Della Bosca and McDonald – are now it’s most enthusiastic supporters.
This has been an expensive conversion for NSW taxpayers. In 1997 the industry was valued at $35 billion. Today it has worth $15 billion. The political expediency of NSW Labor has cost us $20 billion. But the heavies in NSW Labor will argue that this is a reasonable price to pay for another term in office. Others would argue that it will be shameful example of power without glory.
Tags: Budget, Electricity, Labor, Liberal, My Opinion, Policy, Power, Privatisation
