Electricity Industry Privatisation

Mr BARRY O'FARRELL: My question is directed to the Premier. Given the global credit crisis, the 20 per cent fall on the Standard and Poor's utilities index over the past 12 months, and the Origin takeover, what external advice has the Premier received about the estimated sale price of the State's electricity assets? Does the Premier stand by his claim of $15 billion?

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: That just about sums up his performance on this issue, doesn't it?

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: At least he reads the newspapers because that is where the $15 billion came from. The $15 billion is the avoided cost from the Owen inquiry, and the newspapers quite accurately report the estimated avoided cost of cleaning up our current power stations, the investment in base load generation, and the $2 to $3 billion that would be required to pump into retail businesses. That is the $15 billion figure that the Leader of the Opposition is quoting; it is the avoided cost to the taxpayer. As with any transaction, experts are employed to go through the valuation of the businesses and determine their worth. That is hardly a surprise, but on this issue there are lots of surprises when it comes to the Opposition.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: As reported in Hansard last year, the Leader of the Opposition simply did not have the courage to state a position. Yet today he has the gall to ask questions and to foreshadow moving a motion on this issue. I will give some facts, raise some issues and pose some questions of the Leader of the Opposition. A year ago in his speech in reply to the budget the Leader of the Opposition devoted about half a dozen lines—

The SPEAKER: Order! Government members will remain silent.

Mr Andrew Stoner: Point of order: I refer to Standing Order 129, relevance. The question specifically asked what external advice—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals will resume his seat. The Premier's answer is relevant to the question asked.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: I will come to the external advice. Professor Owen, assisted by Morgan Stanley, conducted a public inquiry and produced a detailed and very long report—hundreds of pages. That is one external expert. Further assistance was given by external experts in engineering, environmental work and energy—a whole range of external experts. The Leader of the Opposition wants to know about figures—there is one: Morgan Stanley. Another company that has been engaged is Credit Suisse, following a public process. That is two! It is obvious from the question that the Leader of the Opposition has never sighted the Owen report, let alone bothered to read it, because he is too lazy.

Mr Barry O'Farrell: Point of order: I suspect that the Premier is too dumb, because the Treasurer said in December—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. There is no point of order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Two or three weeks ago the Leader of the Opposition had a briefing from Treasury. At that time did he not ask appropriate questions: was he too stupid to ask, too lazy to ask, too dumb to ask or just too gutless to ask? Which one was it?

The SPEAKER: Order! The House will come to order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: When it comes to energy, I refer to the dishonest nature of the Leader of the Opposition. A year ago during the budget debate he said:

I remind the House the delivery of electricity to New South Wales households involves, firstly, the generation of the power; transmission of the power along what industry insiders commonly call "wires and poles"; and the selling, or retailing, of the power.

Those were well-researched lines! He further said:

On the basis of the recent sale by the Beattie Labor Government in Queensland it has been estimated that this State's retail electricity businesses could realise as much as $4 billion.

The Leader of the Opposition went on to commit the Coalition to selling retail electricity. For the next 12 months he avoided mentioning retail electricity. Has he walked away from that policy statement? The Leader of the Opposition—

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will cease interjecting. The member for Epping will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: He cannot state a position on electricity. A year ago he stated a position when he said that he would sell retail. However, in the following 12 months he has not mentioned the words "retail electricity".

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Murrumbidgee will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: For 12 months he has been saying that the Opposition needs to see the details. A year ago in this Chamber, when he gave three or four lines about selling retail, did he tell us how he would do that? Did he say what advice he had received?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for South Coast will cease interjecting. I call the member for South Coast to order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Did he tell us what would happen to the workers? Did he explain in his policy of selling retail that he had anything that involved workers' guarantees?

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Epping to order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Did he have anything that involved workplace guarantees? Did anything come up about price regulation? No, nothing. He was looking for a headline in response to a budget that had gone down very well. He pulled that out at the last minute—he saw that Peter Beattie had disposed of retail 12 months previously—and said, "Oh, that sounds like a good idea. It might be a good grab in my reply to the budget speech. I will get up and say that we will sell retail." Did he state in the House what would happen to the workforce? No. Did he give any outline of what would happen with prices? No.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Willoughby will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Since then he has tried to create the impression that he never made that statement; that he does not have that policy.

Mr Barry O'Farrell: No.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Well, what was it, Barry? Have you lost your marbles as well? You have forgotten that you made that statement. He has tried to create the impression that he cannot respond, he cannot come to a decision regarding the Government's plan because he has not seen the detail. Where was the detail when he stood up a year ago and said that he would sell retail? He had a briefing from Treasury three or four weeks ago; he had a chance then to ask Treasury officials. I made the offer to him—no Minister, no Treasurer, no Premier with him, but for him to go along and take whomever he liked to ask all the questions he wished.

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Willoughby to order.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Today the Leader of the Opposition asked, "Who provided that external advice?"

Mr Barry O'Farrell: No, that was not the question.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: One of them helped write the Owen report, but probably the Leader of the Opposition never read that. No wonder that this morning Mike Carlton, in an interview—

The SPEAKER: Order! Government members will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: Mike Carlton said to Barry, "You are still sitting on the fence", "You're ducking again", "You're not being honest at all. You're going around in circles." And, later, " you're going to disappear up your own [backside]". No wonder Mike Carlton concluded the interview by saying:

Thanks Barry, that's the Leader of the Opposition, well not Leader of the Opposition—that's not what you would call an opposition.

Sandy Aloisi then said:

Sitting on the fence is not an opposition.

Mike Carlton responded:

It's splinters in the [backside].

I will not be tempted to give the full version of the conclusion to that interview. Mike Carlton concluded:

Look at the Opposition—you wouldn't on them if they were on fire.

That was an appalling performance this morning.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Epping and the member for Willoughby will cease interjecting.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: The Leader of the Opposition has spent a decade undermining every single previous Leader of the Opposition. After an election result he was always the first man to say, "If only they would give it to me. We could be so much better." That was the man who stood one out, one back, with a knife in the back of every one of his leaders. Finally, he got the job of Leader of the Opposition. He has spent a year steadfastly avoiding taking a position on any issue, except one. A year ago, in a brain snap, he decided that he would sell retail. He spent the next 12 months avoiding giving the Government any detail of what he would do with retail, to the workers, to price regulation. What advice did he get that it would be worth $4 billion? He just made the assumption.

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Willoughby to order for the second time.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: In 12 months he has not told us what he would do to secure extra supplies of electricity the New South Wales. As Professor Owen has said, in 2014 the State will face a shortage of supply. The Leader of the Opposition has spent 12 months avoiding taking a position, avoiding coming to the conclusion that the energy experts have come to.

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Epping to order for the second time.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: All along he has shown that he is simply too weak to state a position. To quote the words of eminent Labor figures in this morning's newspapers, "He wouldn't go two rounds in a revolving door" and as a former Prime Minister said, "He wouldn't make an impression on a cushion."