Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 1 Hansard (29 April) . . Page.. 169 ..

Mr Corbell: You have employed him before. Why do you not employ him again?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Quinlan has the floor.

MR QUINLAN: I give you a fearless prediction that history will record: The pendulum will swing. The hasty sale of assets of this particular area that we live in will later be denigrated. When services reduce - when essential services are not as reliable as they are today - equally authoritative commentators will be saying, "This was a bad thing that governments did at the time, and governments need some level of intervention to ensure that basic services are maintained".

When we head towards privatisation, what we are doing is heading towards the limit in terms of risk analysis, or risk profile, as business likes to call it. We have seen evidence already in the UK and in Australia, and in New Zealand of recent times, that where there is minimisation of maintenance, where there is minimisation of investment in systems, and where delivery systems are stretched to their limit, they start to fail and the level of service falls. With particular reference to electricity, it is very important. We are supposed to be becoming the smart city, relying on IT. IT does rely on a very reliable source of electricity.

I will give you a quote I heard from northern England a while back. In northern England they have sold their water supplies to private operators. In fact, the French bought them up and, of course, did progressive asset stripping by not investing in those systems. I heard the quote, "We ran out of water in Yorkshire, mate. Think about that". It has happened.

Mr Humphries: Well, that proves it, then! They ran out of water in Yorkshire. Obviously, do not privatise anything. That settles the argument!

MR QUINLAN: But it does certainly make the point that private deliverers may not be as assiduous in their pursuit of a reliable delivery of service. I am pleased that we are going to further review this question before a decision is taken, because I have not heard any discussion yet of the separation of water and sewerage - which have other influences in terms of health and in terms of environment - from electricity, which is a bit more on the commercial side. I am concerned to see that the debate is divided very quickly. I trust that Fay Richwhite, or whoever succeeds them in the consultancy game, will take account of that.

I have not seen any evidence of where ACTEW has come to an accommodation, or tried to come to an accommodation, with any other of the distributors so that it can, in fact, build its size to be able to compete in a market. It seems that we are quite happy to see the market lapse into the hands of a few, who may follow the oligopoly practices of the oil industry. It will be in their hands.

Ms Carnell: Is a merger not a sale? He is suggesting that we should merge.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .