Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I rise to put on the record my strong opposition to privatisation—in particular, to the privatisation of our electricity network in New South Wales. The Baird government is waging an assault on the electricity industry in New South Wales. I strongly oppose the privatisation of those electricity assets, as does the leader of the opposition in New South Wales, Luke Foley. Luke Foley has been very strong in maintaining public ownership and public operation of the electricity network. I stood behind him and protested against the sale of electricity, even when there were moves by a Labor government to privatise electricity. Luke is very strong on anti-privatisation of our electricity network, because Luke knows what I know: it is currently returning $1 billion a year to the state, and when it is sold that return will no longer be there.

Let's look at selling it for $13 billion for Mike Baird's plan A—I might add that he does not have a plan B—to build infrastructure in selected areas throughout New South Wales. I am sure that Shortland electorate voters will not benefit from Mike Baird's sell-off of our public assets, just as they will not benefit if he decides to privatise Newcastle Buses. You only have to look to the Central Coast to see what a privatised bus service offers people in that area in comparison to the publicly run bus service in the Hunter. I strongly oppose the privatisation of electricity and, as I said, Luke Foley has been one of the strongest voices over a number of years opposing the privatisation of electricity. It is not something that he has come to in recent times.

The other area that I would like to put on the record is one that I spoke about in the House this week: vocational education. Mike Baird's Smart and Skilled has led to the sacking of 1,100 teachers and support staff. It has cancelled vital courses and it has increased TAFE fees, making it harder for those people that are out of work to get the skills that they need to get back into work. Instead of dismantling our TAFE system, as Mike Baird and the Liberal Party want to do, and privatising vocational education, we need to focus on how we can improve vocational education to support the needs of young people leaving school.

Labor will use its first term to turn around Mike Baird's attack on TAFE. Since coming to power, Mike Baird and the Liberal Party have cut $1.7 billion from education—$1.7 billion is what is coming in from electricity, I might add, and they have cut that from education. They have sacked the teachers, as I mentioned, cut courses and drastically increased fees. Youth unemployment has increased by 17 per cent in some areas and is very high in my own area. These numbers are unacceptable.

In my local area, they have sold off the port, and now we are not getting the income there. That was a vital asset. In my own area, they are building a public-private partnership. The hospital at Maitland is going to have a strong private component. What I would say to Mike Baird is: remember Port Macquarie Hospital, a public-private partnership built that hospital, and Labor had to come to the rescue and bring it back into public ownership. I oppose privatisation. Luke Foley and the Labor Party oppose privatisation, and we will work to stop it in New South Wales.