Shadow Treasurer and Member for Mulgrave, Curtis Pitt, says LNP MP for Cairns, Gavin King, should end his fake anti-privatisation campaign and instead seek the release of the secret second volume of the Costello Audit commissioned by the Newman Government.
Mr Pitt and Stuart Traill, North Queensland Organiser with the Electrical Trades Union, today called on Mr King to take four simple steps if he truly opposed privatisation of Queensland’s electricity assets.
“First, Mr King should make a public declaration that he will not vote in favour of privatisation of the power industry or support it in any way,” Mr Pitt said.
“Second, Mr King needs to convince the dysfunctional LNP leadership team of the Premier, Deputy Premier and the Treasurer to abandon their ongoing push to outsource or privatise every government service they can lay their hands on including the power industry.
“Third, Mr King needs to press his own government to release the second secret instalment of the Costello Audit report.
Mr Pitt said the second volume of the Costello Audit handed to the Treasurer at the end of November was being kept secret by the LNP leadership team because it recommended selling government-owned corporations which could include the following power industry bodies:
- CS Energy
- Energex
- Ergon Energy
- Powerlink Queensland
- Stanwell Corporation
“The Labor Party has stated it does not support privatisation of our power industry but Mr King cannot say the same for the LNP,“ Mr Pitt said. “We learned our lesson at the March election and we know Queenslanders do not support the sale of public assets.
“Mr King has launched a petition that tries to suggest the Labor Party is backing privatisation, yet he bases his campaign on a newspaper clipping that pre-dates the federal government’s White Paper on power industry reform.
“Federal Cabinet did not endorse privatisation when considering the final White Paper and the Prime Minister Julia Gillard has unequivocally stated the government is not advocating privatisation of the power industry.”
Mr Traill said Mr King was woefully misinformed on the privatisation issue.
“Mr King deserves zero out of 10 when it comes to doing his homework on this issue,” Mr Traill said.
“He blatantly ignores the fact that it is his own LNP government that is rushing headlong down the privatisation path, and not just in the power industry.
“The fourth thing he needs to do is to call on his Government to bring in legislation to prevent further sales if they really are concerned about the Federal Government’s position.
“Otherwise his petition isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he said.
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