Electricity Privatisation Committee

Extract from Hansard

Legislative Council
19 November 1999

Sandra Kanck
Deputy Leader Australian Democrats
Member of the Legislative Council

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I. That, in the opinion of this House, a joint committee be appointed to provide a means by which any concerns of the Auditor-General in relation to the electricity businesses disposal process in South Australia can be expeditiously communicated to the parliament throughout the duration of the lease process;

II. That, in the event of the joint committee being appointed, the House of Assembly be represented thereon by two members, of whom one shall form a quorum of Assembly members necessary to be present at all sittings of the committee; and

III. That Joint Standing Order No. 6 be so far suspended as to enable the Chairman to vote on every question, but when the votes are equal the Chairman shall also have a casting vote.

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: Since it became clear that the privatisation was to go ahead, the Democrats held the position, and still hold the position, that there should be a committee to oversee the privatisation. A couple of years ago I served on the select committee into the EWS private management process and was very concerned when I heard then the things that might have gone wrong at that time. As it is, the only person who is really overseeing this current privatisation process in a dispassionate way is the Auditor- General, and I am very grateful that he is doing that and bringing things to the attention of the Parliament, as at the moment by way of the Economic and Finance Committee.

It may be that, given the way this resolution is worded, the committee may never meet. As I read it, it would meet only if the Auditor-General had concerns about the process. Provided there are no concerns, it appears to me that the committee would not be activated. I am a reluctant supporter of this, despite having said that there needs to be a committee to oversee the privatisation, because that is not what this committee would be doing.

I am reluctant about it, because I do not believe it represents the parliament. This parliament is now much more than merely the Labor Party and Liberal Party and, as constituted, I recognise the validity of what the Treasurer has said: that, should the committee meet, certain ALP members may use it for political advantage. I think that is an obvious consequence of the way this is being set up. With this motion the government should have been attempting to get a group of people together who were concerned about what will be the best for South Australia.

Since the parliamentary decision was made to privatise, I have taken the position that what I want to see now is that South Australia gets the best deal in terms of both price and the supply of electricity. I will certainly not do anything that will talk the price down. For instance, on occasion matters have come to my attention and I have wondered whether I should raise them or whether that would result in a further reduction in the price. I have decided that on balance publicly raising some of these issues would not be for the benefit of the state.

I note that some members of the ALP are prepared to use this for political advantage, but I must say that I have certainly seen the Liberal Party in opposition do similar things. As an outside observer to the proceedings of the parliament in 1993 the scrimber committee seemed to me to be very much a farce. That committee was probably instrumental in ensuring that scrimber was not able to succeed as a concept. So, maybe the Labor opposition is in payback mode at the moment: I do not know.

I am very grateful that we have an Auditor-General of the calibre of Ken MacPherson advising this parliament. I take on board what he said: that, if we do not get this right, the result could be worse than the State Bank for South Australia, and that does not bear thinking about. Because this committee has the capacity to bring in a limited amount of accountability, I indicate that I will accept it, but I also register my concern that there are no Democrats on the committee.