Escape from future oblivion !

The decision by the New South Wales government to sell power generation and distribution to the private sector is a canny political move to avoid future oblivion !

There is no doubt that unless generation capacity is enhanced there will be a shortfall leading to rolling blackouts during peak load periods some years in the future. To avoid that, new generating stations costing over fifteen billion dollars will need to be started now - to be certain of coming on line in ten to fifteen years time.

If power generation is still owned by the government that decision would be on the horns of a dilemma. Power generation is one of the greatest contributors to increasing carbon emissions - so the decision would need to be between coal or gas - or nuclear.

To adopt nuclear would mean an even bigger initial outlay, but would also create confrontation with Kevin Rudd's Federal government, a fight with the left wing of the Labor party - and bring the anti-nuclear forces to do battle for the minds of the general public.

Whatever the decision - there is still the spectre of enforceable carbon credit trading becoming binding somewhere in the short term. This introduces a big, new cost into power generation - and ultimately means a steep rise in the retail power price is unavoidable.

The state government advisers are savvy people and can see that this is a scenario that would signal oblivion for whatever government was in office when the bad news arrived.

So the decision has been made to distance the state government from the coming disaster by selling off power - and gaining a twenty five billion dollar windfall.
The unions will be bought off by the offer of a $ 40,000 " bonus " per worker for transferring from the public to the private sector - and the public will be insulated from power price hikes until 2015. After that - all bets are off !

There is also the opportunity to cement the government's hold on power by using that twenty five billion dollar windfall to do showcase improvements in the hospital system, education - and possibly build a few more roads - not to mention the abysmal rail system.

No doubt the wavering local politicians have been brought into line by a private revelation of the doom that lies ahead if power is not shed to the private sector, but to many it is a case of a great public asset and source of revenue being lost to the ownership of the people - and as a result - a sharp increase in each individuals cost of living when the inevitable price rises hit !