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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 40 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

Would they raise taxes? Would they borrow? How would we know? What services will they cut and what taxes and charges will they impose to meet the amount of money that we will need to fund our growing superannuation requirement?

This morning we have already seen a report on the table that puts up a solution that just says, "Move the ACTEW dividend". Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, the ACTEW dividend is in our budget now - the whole $45m - paying for health and education. There is no new money in the budget or anywhere, Mr Speaker. They just say, "Don't you worry about anything. You can do without the dividend and you can pull money out of ACTEW at the same time". What will they do? We still do not know. And, Mr Speaker, we still do not know what the Independents would do either. Would they cut existing benefits to current staff? If we cannot pay the superannuation liability what would they do? Would they cut our responsibilities to public servants in the future? I certainly hope not, Mr Speaker. That would simply be unacceptable. But we do not know what they would do.

The Labor Party and others have made numerous statements about the perils and the evils of privatisation, and they refer to the Victorian experience or the Queensland experience or the South Australian experience. The fact is that these statements are misinformed and blatantly wrong. (Extension of time granted) Whether the errors are deliberate or based upon ignorance, I suppose, is a matter for conjecture. Either way, Labor has been proved wrong on virtually every assertion it has made.

Let me now look at some of these situations that have occurred interstate. In Queensland, power supply has often reached crisis point in times of peak usage. In fact, I think in the media this morning we saw a situation in North Queensland where exactly this has happened.

Mr Smyth: It happened at 2CN this morning.

MS CARNELL: That is right. It must have been because they do not use ACTEW. It has been stated that, on an unseasonably hot day, Queensland's energy reserves would sink to just enough to supply six large office buildings. As a result, people are required to cut back on their usage of lights, pool filters, air conditioners and so forth. Queensland is likely to experience blackouts in the event of further maintenance problems. In recent months, Queenslanders have had to endure the worst blackouts in a decade. These problems have arisen, not under private ownership but under public ownership.

The New South Wales Government convened an urgent meeting in October following a fatal accident in the electricity industry. The New South Wales Industrial Relations Minister said that there had been a number of serious accidents that had raised serious safety concerns. In the same month, hot water was cut to 7,000 residents at Lake Macquarie after a breakdown in a local energy substation. Power supplies were also cut to 2,000 affected homes. Again, Mr Speaker, those problems arose under public ownership.

The cost of the contamination crisis to Sydney Water continues to rise as commercial customers finalise the cost of their operations. Sydney Water has already been ordered to give all 1.2 million affected property and business owners a $16 rebate and to

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