By Margaret Gleeson
SYDNEY — There were few surprises for opponents of the Bob Carr/Michael Egan plan to privatise NSW electricity generation and distribution in the committee of inquiry report released on August 28.
The committee, chaired by former ALP federal and Victorian secretary Bob Hogg (who achieved notoriety in the 1980s as the "left-winger" who engineered the ALP shift to a pro-uranium mining policy), called for the immediate sale of the industry.
Hogg acknowledged that this would result in the shedding of 4000 jobs from the 13,500 work force.
Only one member of the committee, Steve Turner of the Public Service Association, dissented, saying that privatisation would push up electricity prices, accelerate job losses, reduce environmental controls and cost the NSW government a source of income.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on August 29 that the government had adopted all 101 recommendations of the Hogg report and that treasurer Egan would seek cabinet support for the $25 billion sell-off. Egan said he was confident of persuading the majority of 825 delegates at the October ALP state conference to accept privatisation.
The power industry unions (controlled by the ALP right faction), the ALP left and key figures in the ALP parliamentary right, who have united to oppose the sell-off, declared the inquiry a sham.
The convener of the anti-privatisation campaign, former power industry union official and current ALP assistant secretary Damian O'Connor, said the Hogg findings were a major con job to transfer wealth from the NSW people to rich multinationals.
The August 28 Herald quoted Deirdre Grusovin, ALP right MP and ALP vice president as saying the recommendation to privatise came "as no surprise to those who understand the working of committees. It's always been anticipated that the committee of inquiry would be looking for reasons as to why the sale should proceed, not reasons why it should not."
Assistant secretary of the Electrical Trades Union Bernie Riordan said the committee was a set up to push privatisation through caucus and the state conference.
Support from the right-wing unions aided the Labor government's corporatisation of the power industry two years ago. The ETU at the time retreated from its position of opposition to corporatisation after the Carr government gave assurances that it would not lead to privatisation.
While the ETU's strong opposition to privatisation of the power industry is also an attempt to forestall the union's demise. Of the ETU's 15,000 financial members, 9000 are employed in the distribution of electricity. If the leadership backs down this time, its credibility would be shot.
Labor left MP Meredith Burgmann told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that for power privatisation to get the green light from the state conference, the unity of the right and left factions on this issue would have to be broken. It is not seen as a left-wing issue, Burgmann said.
The campaign has been consciously confined within the ALP, with the focus on the debate at the October conference, Burgmann said. Two hundred ALP branches around NSW have opposed privatisation, and will be sending delegates to vote against privatisation at the conference. If delegates and the right-wing unions hold firm, privatisation should be overwhelmingly defeated.
"The issue of privatisation of the power industry is critical for the ALP", Burgmann told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. "If we lose this, it will lead to a massive leakage of activist members not seen since the defeat of the anti-uranium mining policy in the early '80s."
However, the track record of ALP conferences disregarding views of the membership suggests caution. An 11th hour deal cannot be ruled out.