Territorians and Power and Water Authority workers have been told that this community asset will be sold unless pressing issues in a consultant’s report are addressed by the workers and their unions. Despite this threat, the minister has refused to release the report to the workers, making it impossible for them to save their jobs and our asset.

At the same time, the Country Liberals have threatened to sack and sue Power and Water Authority workers who dare to attend today’s anti-privatisation rally. Minister, why are you hell-bent on creating turmoil in the Power and Water Authority, and why won’t you give Power and Water workers a chance to save their jobs?

ANSWER

Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question this morning and I take the opportunity to hand over this document of hers that starts off with the heading: ‘A Press Release: Power and Water Sell Off – A Deal Done’. As usual, the Leader of the Opposition has no idea of what she is talking about. And what she’s doing, of course, is scaremongering. She is scaremongering to all those hardworking public servants that we have here up in the Northern Territory. That is what the press release says: ‘Power and Water Sell Off – A Deal Done’. She goes on to say: ‘I have received inside information that the key decision to sell off the Power and Water Authority has already been made’. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that either she is a liar or the person that supposedly gave her the inside information is a liar, because there is no key decision that has been made by the Power and Water Authority, by Cabinet, or by anybody else. This is just like the fiction that she says has fallen off the back of a truck. It is way off the mark, and I table her document.

For all Territorians listening today and contemplating rallying outside Parliament House, I assure you, and I assure this House, that the opposition is wrong. The Opposition Leader is wrong. Government has not already made a decision to sell the Power and Water Authority. Consultants Merrill Lynch and Fay, Richwhite were engaged by government to review the Power and Water Authority and they have recommended that the part sale of PAWA should occur as soon as possible. The consultants have recommended fully privatising the electricity generation and distribution component of the Power and Water Authority, and the privatising or outsourcing of the water and sewerage component.

However, on receiving this review, government met with the unions and advised them that our preferred position at the time was continued ownership by government, providing sufficient cost-efficiencies could be achieved to bring Power and Water’s performance closer to private sector operations. And we have not changed from that position. The object of this exercise, despite the scaremongering of the opposition, is to ensure that we have cheaper power for Territorians. At the end of the day we must be as competitive as the private sector, otherwise the private sector will move into the marketplace and take the business away from Power and Water, which will result in loss of jobs.

How dumb are they? They don’t understand, but they’re quite happy to scaremonger and upset Territorians, particularly Power and Water Authority employees just before Christmas. We have made our position quite clear about what we are all about. As a government-owned business, the authority is required to be fully commercial and compete openly with the private sector, under competitive arrangements as they are established, and this means we have to operate at similar efficiency levels. In order for us to do that, the level of financial improvement required is believed to be in the order of 20% of Power and Water’s discretionary operating costs or expenditure reduction of about $20m per annum. Additional non-tariff revenue measures will also have to be considered. If such efficiencies can be achieved and competition emerges over time, government firmly believes that electricity tariffs will reduce.

Jobs are expected to be lost through natural attrition but not as many as would occur under a private sector operation. If private sector ownership was to occur, the consultants estimate that about 300 jobs would be lost under locally managed business.

Mr Bailey: You are telling lies here.

Mr POOLE: Madam Speaker, ask the honourable member to withdraw that remark.

Madam SPEAKER: Member for Wanguri, withdraw the remark.

Mr Bailey: I withdraw it.

Madam SPEAKER: Minister, get through your answer quickly, we are taking far too long today.

Mr POOLE: These estimates were confirmed by a separate review by Power and Water Authority consultants. I note that NT Power has said that if they took over private operation of the Power and Water Authority there would be no job cuts but of course they are not guaranteeing that they would not reduce the number of jobs. Without selling the Power and Water Authority, government hopes that the Authority can improve its performance in line with private sector operations.

Over the next few weeks, Cabinet will consider a number of detailed submissions covering specific industry regulation, competition, tariffs, and financial improvement measures required from the Power and Water Authority. Regulatory aspects of PAWA’s current operations will be formally separated from their commercial activities to avoid conflicts of interest in a competitive market situation. Already an active program involving all staff in Power and Water’s performance improvement has commenced. Furthermore, we will continue to maintain an open process of communication with Power and Water Authority staff, and the unions, as the situation emerges. So, to the Leader of the Opposition I ask, when will you get it right?

We know that your own confidential internal ALP document encourages your party and your members to join with the unions and stir up trouble. Well, that is not what we are about. We are about producing job security and cheaper power for Territorians.