Stop the power sell-off rallies - Sydney and the Illawarra

The Stop the Power Sell-off Rallies in Martin Place and Wollongong this Saturday and Sunday are STILL ON!
The second wave of the government's electricity privatisation plans may have collapsed, but we must now step up the pressure on a future Coalition government to work with the Greens to cancel the existing contracts and restore and maintain full public ownership and control of generation in NSW.

The Keneally government has walked away from the mess they have created leaving NSW with a dysfunctional electricity industry. The unsustainable mix of private gentraders at some power stations and entirely public control at others can only be resolved by reversing Treasurer Eric Roozendaal's privatisation.

See you there!

Sydney Stop the Power Sell-off Rally
Saturday 5 February 11am
Top of Martin Place near Macquarie St
Speakers confirmed:
Charmaine Crowe, Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (MC)
David Shoebridge Greens NSW MP
Pepe Clarke, Nature Conservation Council
Sally McManus, Australian Services Union
Jess Moore, Socialist Alliance
John Kaye Greens NSW MP

Illawarra Stop the Power Sell-off Rally
Sunday 6 February 1pm
Amphitheatre, Wollongong Mall, Wollongong
Speakers confirmed so far:
George Takacs, Illawarra Greens will MC the event.
Jess Moore, Wollongong Climate Action Coalition
Paola Harvey, Socialist Alliance
John Kaye Greens NSW MP
More to be advised.

Letter to Gerard Martin MP

People Power Blue Mountains recently sent the state member for Bathurst (which includes Lithgow), Gerard Martin, a letter asking for him to state his position on the privatisation of the eletricity industry. This letter, and his reply, are printed below:

* * *

Dear Mr Martin,

PeoplePower Blue Mountains notes with warm approval your opposition last year to the proposal to sell electricity retailers and lease electricity generators.

When he ascended to the leadership of the NSW Parliamentary ALP caucus Nathan Rees indicated that he would support a ‘revised’ plan to sell off electricity assets

We note with dismay that not only will the so-called revised plan include the sale of electricity retailers; it will also include the sale of the generator trading rights.

As NSW Treasury, who have been pushing this anti-democratic policy all along, stated at Budget Estimates prior to the mini-budget last year, the purchaser of the generator trading rights will also purchase the rights to make significant decisions on the day to day operation of electricity generation plants (such as Wallerawang and Mt Piper).

Decisions such as maintenance, staffing, industrial relations, production levels and investment will all be taken from the state owned Delta Electricity and given to a private (and highly likely overseas owned) operator.

This is not alarmist rhetoric; this is a matter of public record from the former head of treasury, John Pierce, along with other senior treasury officials, under oath before budget estimates last year.

As you can well imagine, this new plan, put together by Infrastructure Minister Joe Tripodi, will be anathema to the substantial number of power workers and their families that live and vote in your electorate.

What the workers in the industry, and consumers of Country Energy and Integral Energy want is a clear statement that you oppose the sell off of their assets.

At no stage prior to the 2007 election was this proposal canvassed from the electors of Bathurst. Your stated opposition to the Tripodi Plan will provoke a ringing endorsement of yourself from the people of the Bathurst electorate come the next election.

If, however, you support this endeavour by Mr Tripodi to sell off the electricity retailers and the generator trading rights, PeoplePower Blue Mountains would like to invite you to publicly enunciate the reasons for your support for the Tripodi plan at a forum in the Lithgow district at your earliest convenience.

Our many members in the Bathurst Electorate are very curious to understand your position and we will be promoting your position with a great deal of visibility over the next few years.

We look forward to a response that indicates that you have chosen your electorate over Joe Tripodi and the NSW Treasury who, after all, do not have a vote in the seat of Bathurst.

Yours sincerely,

Liam Mitchell,

Convenor, PeoplePower Blue Mountains

29 March 2009

* * *

People Power Blue Mountains

Dear Sir

Thank you for your recent correspondence in relation to my stand on ownership of electricity in New South Wales. People of the Bathurst Electorate have had a very clear position on this issue from day one.

I have opposed privatisation at every forum in the Australian Labor Party and will continue to do so, as I am currently doing regarding plans to privatise correctional facilities in New South Wales

Yours Faithfully

Gerard Martin MP

MEMBER FOR BATHURST

Campaign against power sell off gaining pace

The following article was published in the Lithgow Mercury, 31 March, 2009:

A leading anti-electricity privatisation group has written to Member for Bathurst Gerard Martin calling on him to oppose the latest push by the Rees Government to sell off the State’s power system.

The call comes after power workers at Delta facilities on the Central Coast walked off the job last Friday in a protest against power privatisation plans.

The letter from PeoplePower Blue Mountains highlights statements made under oath late last year by the head of NSW Treasury John Pierce that many of the day-to-day decisions on the running of plants at Mt Piper and Wallerawang would be taken from Delta Electricity and given to the successful bidder for the generator trading rights.

Many industry commentators have already said that the successful bidder for the trading rights at Delta would likely be an overseas-based company.

“Whoever wins the bid for the generator trading rights will be driven by profit,” PeoplePower Blue Mountains convenor Liam Mitchell said.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what is going to happen to job security, pay and conditions if an overseas multinational is calling the shots at Delta.”

PeoplePower Blue Mountains say press reports indicate that NSW Infrastructure Minister Joe Tripodi is behind the revived plan.

“The people behind this, Joe Tripodi and the NSW Treasury, must be very slow,” Mitchell said.

“The people of NSW, especially workers in the industry, have spelled it out for them time and time again — privatisation in any form of public utilities is simply not an option.

“We are calling on Gerard Martin to publicly come out and back the many families in his electorate that rely on the electricity generation industry for decent jobs.

“If Mr Martin prefers to choose Joe Tripodi over his electorate we will be encouraging him to come out publicly and explain why.

“This is not an issue that anyone can sit on the fence on.

“The events at Vales Point last Friday show that anger among power workers is very real and it is a matter if when, not if, this issue will emerge locally.

“When that happens workers in the power industry, and the broader community, want Mr Martin to stand by his community and publicly state that he is opposed to privatisation of the power industry and especially the Tripodi plan.”

- - - - - - - -

• Lithgow radio station radio 2LT also ran the story in their news bulletins on Monday.

• We have also sent a letter to Gerard Martin (which we will publish here soon.)

- - - - - - - - - -

Victorian bushfires highlight the folly of electricity privatisation

Jeff Sparrow, editor of Overland writes (for crikey.com.au):

Arsonists, says Kevin Rudd, should rot in prison. But who will be punished if the pending law suits find private power companies liable for the fires in Kilmore East, Horsham, Mudgegonga and Dederang?

Why, you will, dear reader -- thanks to the terms that state governments negotiated when they sold off our public assets. Consider the case of SP AusNet, the subject of a class action for negligence around the Kilmore fires.

The Insurance Council of Australia has estimated the damage of those fires at about $500 million. But SP AusNet's legal liability has been capped at $100 million under a deal struck by the former Kennett government with private utility operators, when the former State Electricity Commission was privatised in 1995. Legal sources said this
meant the Brumby Government could be forced to cover a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The recent heatwave highlighted some other results of the great privatization binge carried out a decade or so ago.

Connex, the group that seized Victoria's rail network, recently excused the 2300 services it cancelled last month on the basis of ... wait for it ... the weather. Its trains can't, you see, function in weather warmer than thirty-five degrees. Given that each year there's this phenomenon called "summer" (you may have heard of it), operators of a transport system designed for the benefit of the public -- most of whom, strangely enough, still have to work on hot days -- might conclude that cool-weather-only trains simply don't cut it.

But Connex, of course, is a private company, and makes its decisions on the basis of an entirely different calculus. That's why, though Melbournians would clearly prefer to buy their fares from a conductor, we're stuck instead with dysfunctional ticketing machines, unable in most cases even to provide change. Not surprisingly, there's now a widespread culture of fare evasion, which the private owners attempt to counter with hectoring advertisements and roving gangs of thuggish inspectors.

But there's a bigger issue relating to climate change. Now, we don't have to believe in global warming. The science is complex and most of us don't fully understand it. But many of us are also sufficiently mathematically challenged as to not follow the process by which Eratosthenes of Cyrene first calculated the circumference of the planet. But we don't therefore sign up with the Flat Earth Society, since we possess sufficient common sense to accept the consensus of the scientific world.

If we adopt that methodology with climate change -- aligning ourselves with the vast majority of scientists rather than the small but shrill denialist faction of oil-company flacks, shock jocks and the tabloid journalists who are professionally wrong about everything -- certain things follow. We can expect a small but real increase in average temperatures, and that means bushfires will become more likely and more devastating. No, you can't ascribe the blame to climate change for any particular fire, just as you can't definitively link your heart attack to your pack-a-day habit. Heart problems kill non-smokers, too -- but only a fool would conclude that means you can puff away without risks.

In other words, if we don't do something, we can expect more tragedies like the one we've just endured.

But that brings us directly back to privatisation. It's not only that the process by which we swapped our public assets for a bag of magic beans has led to an appreciable degradation in services, it's also disarmed us in the fight against the causes and consequences of climate change.

How is the private company that makes money from selling you electricity -- and thus becomes more profitable the more of it you use -- going to foster energy efficiency?

The short answer is that it will do so about as effectively as, say, a pub campaigning for sobriety, a casino against problem gambling -- or, to use a more apposite example -- the private utility in charge of our taps for water efficiency.

The world financial crisis has already exposed many of the ideologues behind the neo-liberal excesses of the last decades as at best charlatans and at worst overt fraudsters. By all means, prosecute the arsonists. But let's also have some genuine accountability about the policy makers who got us into the mess we're now in.

The Rees Electricity Privatisation Plan

The plan involves:

1. Sale of generation development sites (with "use it or lose it" conditions)

2. Sale of retail arms of Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy

3. Lease of the trading function to the private sector. Selling electricity will be performed by the private sector.

The three big problems with this plan:

1. It shifts all the cost-risk onto households

2. It leaves the management of change to the discredited free market

3. It does nothing to promote a transition to sustainable energy

The way forward?

"Could you imagine filling up your car with a tank of fuel and then going into the service station to find out what the price is? This is effectively what the government is asking us to accept."

The latest proposal purports to be different, but in reality contains much of Iemma's scheme and leaves the door open to bringing in the rest of the plan by stealth – without requiring enabling legislation.

The new government plan is to privatise the retail sector – Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy – and lease the right to sell electricity on the wholesale market.

Current power generators would remain in public hands, as would the transmission infrastructure. Development sites – earmarked for future generation needs – would be sold off. Private electricity wholesalers would have the right to build new power plants, effectively privatising the industry over time.

This plan holds the underlying view of the discredited Owen Report that to guarantee the future of the state's energy needs, energy generation and retail must be opened up to private profit.

It does not have any mechanism to cope with future energy needs in a world where climate change is forcing reorganisation of carbon-intensive industries, such as base load electricity generators.

Nothing in this plan will help create a sustainable energy industry. This is left up to the market.

There are no guarantees that privately owned electricity marketers would invest in new power stations, let alone sustainable ones.

Even if they do, the new generators would likely be the cheapest available – based on dirty coal. The future of the electricity industry – and indeed our own future – would be left up to the markets.

While the government claims that retail prices will be capped until 2013, it has decided to review the cap based on the extent of private generation of electricity.

Despite the Owen Report, the future of the state's electricity supply is not in dire circumstances. Owen omitted the crucial fact that potential energy efficiency savings using currently available
technology would rule out the need for new power plants and would allow the phasing out of current coal fired plants.

Under the Rees plan managing electricity demand would go out the window as private retailers and traders sought to maximise demand and through that, maximise profit.

The government is effectively selling the wholesale electricity market to the private sector.

This market is very volatile – a futures trading market on electricity – and when deregulating the electricity retail market, the government is seeking to wash its hands of the cost-risks associated with this market.

The hedge will be to pass on the cost-risk to retailers, who in turn will pass it on to households.

Any private corporation looking to get into this sector is going to need a very big carrot to smoothen the road for them.

One carrot will be the possibility for wholesale distributors to become generators.

There will this be no requirement for the wholesalers to buy their electricity from government owned generators. Indeed, another possible carrot potential wholesalers may demand is to be able to buy from cheaper, privatised generators elsewhere on the national grid.

Electricity, by is very nature, is not a commodity that can be packaged and labelled with the company's logo as other goods and is distributed alongside electricity from other retailer through the same power lines. The only reason for these reforms is to place the system
in private hands run for private profit, rather than any efficiency gains.

Workers in the electricity retail industry have been told that their jobs and conditions will be safe. However, from a government that is looking to massively cut jobs in the public sector, these guarantees are not worth the paper they're printed on. Award workers will face
pressure to accept cuts, whether at the end of the 5 years if not before. AWA workers could find themselves out of a job at the end of their contract.

Any new power stations built by the wholesale corporations would become greenfield sites – open to new employment conditions worked out by the company themselves before they even employ anyone. This alone would place great pressure on the wages and conditions of workers in other plants.

So what does the government get for this? It has been estimated that it will receive $10 billion for the lease of the wholesale rights over 10 years. A further $3 billion is assumed to be the price for the retailers. Total: $13 billion for the next 10 years, with a decreasing amount after that if private corporations generate their own electricity or buy from cheaper sources. The figures used to estimate the sale of the electricity sector were based on seven-year-old
figures and have not been tested in the marketplace. In a time of global warming, a global credit squeeze and carbon trading tax, the amount the government will get will likely be much smaller.

Compare this to the $1.5 billion in income the government gets each year from its state owned generators and retailers. NSW taxpayers will be behind even before the ink is dry on the sale contracts.

The environment will certainly suffer as a result. With wholesalers able to buy from the cheapest available source they will not be interested in investing in renewable energy or bringing online any sustainable industry until the costs are lower.

The consumer will ultimately be the loser. Cost fluctuations – particularly in peak periods – would be passed on to the consumer. Reliability has been shown to suffer under a system of private generation and distribution. In a profit driven system, the price of electricity is likely to jump just to satisfy the private investors.

The package currently stands at the sale of retailers and lease of wholesale trading rights, but it is still possible that these will be a package deal if companies are interested, leading to a privately controlled monopoly.

This proposal is seriously flawed. Even the Owen report couldn't stomach the idea of a stand-alone sale of the retailers, while the privatisation of generator trading has been rejected in 2001 and 2004 because it wouldn't work.

The Rees Privatisation Plan is not the way to go if we are to keep electricity affordable, reliable and sustainable in NSW.

By Liam Mitchell and Phil Doyle

PRESS RELEASE November 7 2008

Mountains households threatened by privatisation push

Blue Mountains households are being threatened by a new push by the Rees government to privatise electricity in NSW.

The move will see electricity retailers sold off and control of wholesale electricity trading shifted to private operators.

“Ninety six percent of NSW households use a government owned retailer,” said PeoplePower Blue Mountains spokesperson Phil Doyle. “Once this shifts into the hands of the private sector any guarantees the government has given about price controls or job protection won’t be worth the paper they’re written on.

“We have seen in Victoria that these controls can be dumped at the drop of a hat.

“Ask Victorians who experienced a 17 percent increase in power prices and hundreds of jobs sent to overseas call centres what they think of retail electricity privatisation.

“For households it’s a disaster.

“The proposal the government is putting forward over electricity trading is also problematic.

“It was put up in 2001 and 2004 and rejected by the NSW Treasury for the simple fact that it won’t work.

“In the end the cost-risk will be shifted onto households, creating a double whammy.

“None of what the Rees government is doing will help manage electricity demand or help a shift to sustainable energy supplies.

“Instead the government has put this in the too hard basket, shrugging its responsibility to serve the community interest.

Doyle pointed out that Nathan Rees’ predecessor lost his job over electricity privatisation and any politicians that supported this new plan would suffer the same fate.

“This is bad for households, bad for the environment and bad for the economy,” said Doyle.

PeoplePower Blue Mountains will be meeting at 8pm on Thursday November 13, upstairs at Blackburn’s Family Hotel in Parke Street Katoomba to discuss the community response to Rees’ privatisation plans.

A public meeting is planned for the same venue on Thursday November 20 to inform the community about what is contained in the Rees electricity privatisation plan.

Special Update August 31 - It's not over for retail electricity!

NOTE - An emergency meeting of PeoplePower Blue Mountains is scheduled for Tuesday night, from 7.30pm, upstairs at Blackburn's Family Hotel, 15 Parke Street Katoomba. IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT PLEASE READ THE INFO BELOW ON HOW YOU CAN STILL HAVE IMPORTANT INPUT

For a brief few hours last Thursday it looked like we had won, and in any event we have had a partial victory.

While the generators have been kept in public hands the all important retailers - the people who send us our bills - are being targeted for a sell off despite the government's own hand-picked advisors recommending against this.

In February this year the Iemma government promised that privatisation would go to a vote. They have reneged on that commitment by pressing ahead with a proposal that will be a disaster for NSW consumers, jobs and the environment.

This issue, however, is far from over.

PeoplePower Blue Mountains has come up with a strategy that we believe can influence the decision to sell of electricity retailers.

We are starting a campaign where candidates across councils commit to establishing not-for-profit electricity retailers as a function of local government.

It works like this: two or more councils that share a region - think the Hunter, the Central West or Western Sydney - band together to purchase wholesale electricity that they then on-sell to ratepayers and residents on a not-for-profit basis.

The strengths are that it keeps electricity retail in publicly owned hands, protects consumers and creates job opportunities in electricity retail. There is also the opportunity for this model to develop the sort of bulk market for renewables that would make those forms of generation more viable. In short it has the capacity to make electricity affordable, reliable and sustainable.

With local government elections two weeks away we will need to work quickly to make this an issue in the upcoming council election campaign.

We already have a range of candidates across parties committed to implementing this program in Blue Mountains, Penrith and Blacktown local government areas. We are looking to expand the commitment to Lithgow, Bathurst, Newcastle , Maitland, Cessnock and Mudgee in coming days.

This would obviously influence the viability of selling off electricity retail (who would buy Integral Energy if it was going to have to compete with a not-for-profit retailer?). It would also blind-side the Government and make the forthcoming council elections a de-facto referendum on privatising retail electricity.

We need YOU to assist us in publicising and effecting this strategy across as many councils as possible.

We are very keen to see this idea get maximum exposure and ask for your assistance in this.

Things you can do include:

- Forwarding this update to as many of your friends as possible across NSW.
- Contacting council candidates and asking them to support establishing regional not-for-profit electricity retailers through councils working together. A list of council candidates for every council is available from http://election.nsw.gov.au/ElectionWebService/indexPage.html
- Come to the PeoplePower emergency meeting on Tuesday night (details at the top of this email)

If JackGreen can do it, so can local government.

Blue Mountains Electricity Charter

The second part of our strategy is getting our local, state and federal politicians to endorse our Blue Mountains Electricity Charter.

Because of the urgency of this issue we will be moving to adopt a charter on Tuesday night. A draft of the charter is below - if you have any additions, or amendments you would like to suggest but cannot attend the meeting please forward these through to peoplepowerbm@gmail.com as soon as possible so they can be included in the meeting. Otherwise you can discuss them at the meeting.

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires electricity generation and distribution to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield ‘Energy Bonds’.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered “peaking plants” during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

You can still stop the power sell off - contact Phil Koperberg

Despite winning the debate, having four out of five people in the state opposed to power privatisation, and having a majority of politicians in the NSW Upper House opposed to electricity privatisation, the Iemma government is still persisting with the incredibly flawed strategy of selling electrcity retailers: the people who send us our power bill.

This flies in the face of their own biased reports, from Owen onwards. Whatever happened to their argument that this was all about securing our energy needs? It turns out that all along it was about Morris Iemma getting HIS hands on a pile of cash by selling YOUR assets.

It is imperative that you contact our local MP, Phil Koperberg and demand that Parliament be recalled immediately.

Let Phil Koperberg know that the Iemma government promised that the sale of the retail arm of electricity - the people we get our bills from - would be debated and voted on in Parliament. Michael Costa promised this in the Upper House in February this year. Without legislation NONE of the so called protections announced by Costa and Iemma are protected by legislation, and their word is not worth anything.

Let Phil Koperberg know that the very legitimacy of his position is at stake. If a government he is a part of can betray its own commitments in this brazen fashion then it no longer deserves the respect of the people of NSW.

Phil Koperberg, as our local representative, has a choice. Either he continues to support the a leadership that has betrayed it's own commitments, given in parliament, or he stands with his electorate. The choice is stark, and clear.

Does Phil Koperberg want to go down in history as a man who served his community, or as a man who betrayed his community and made an essential service, electricity, unaffordable for thousands of Blue Mountains households?

The secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson, said that the Iemma government had "signed its own political death warrants". We agree.

If Phil Koperberg cannot deliver the recall of parliament then he too has signed his political death warrant.

You can let Mr Koperberg know by contacting his office directly - a phone call is recommended.

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298
Fax (02) 4751 1245
bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Auditor Blows Hole in Iemma Arguments

Below is a report from the ABC about the Auditor Generals report into power privatisation.

Far from being a ringing endorsement of the Costa/Iemma move, it has instead exposed two fatal flaws - italicised in the ABC report below.

The AG is calling for a reserve price to be set, which will make a mockery of the wildly optimistic $15Billion figure that Costa and Iemma have been bandying around like a pair of Parramatta Road used car salesmen. The second flaw is that the AG totally rejects the Costa/Iemma timetable, calling on the essential services to be sold off simultaneously. This is going to lead to what will effectively be a fire sale of an asset owned by the people of NSW that Iemma has no mandate to toy with.

New South Wales Parliament is being recalled early from its winter break to debate the Government's electricity privatisation legislation.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, has been emboldened by the Auditor-General's positive review of the sale strategy and by his statement that it should happen sooner, rather than later.

In his report, handed down yesterday, Peter Achterstraat said he found nothing to suggest the strategy is not appropriate for maximising financial value for taxpayers.

He has suggested the Government should set a reserve price for each transaction and not proceed unless that is met.

He also said the Government should consider off-loading the generators and retailers simultaneously, rather than sequentially as is proposed.

The ABC understands MPs could now be called back to Macquarie Street as early as the end of next week to debate the legislation.

The Speaker, Richard Torbay, says it would not be difficult to organise.

"The Parliament is obviously there, established and ready to go," he said.

Mr Torbay was still waiting for official notification yesterday afternoon, but said the early recall is achievable.

"We would need to obviously notify all the MPs," he said.

"That can be done at very short notice, even a day or two, allowing members to travel to get to Parliament House and obviously undertake a sitting of Parliament on a special basis."

The recall puts extra pressure on the Opposition to state its position.

Business groups say there is no call for further delays, but Greens MP John Kaye believes the Opposition still has room to move.

"The report was so narrow it failed to look at retention," he said.

He says at the very least the legislation should be delayed until the shape of the emissions trading scheme is known.

The swift action is being backed by an alliance of business groups, who say the Auditor-General's review of the sale strategy leaves no room for doubters.

Draft Community Charter

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires all electricity generation to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield ‘Energy Bonds’.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered “peaking plants” during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

Update August 21

PeoplePower Blue Mountains - Update August 21

In this update:

- Upcoming events

- Draft Community Charter on Electricity

- Port Macquarie By-Election

- Dealing With Power Companies

- Penrith Show

- PeoplePower Blog!

- What you can do

Upcoming Events

August

Saturday/Sunday August 30/31 - We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

September

Tuesday 2 - People Power meeting, 7:30pm, upstairs, Blackburn's Family Hotel. Come along and get involved as we develop our community charter for the future of electricity!

Saturday 13 - Local council elections

Draft Community Charter on Electricity

At our forum on August 10 we committed ourselves to developing a Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity in the Blue Mountains. A draft of the Charter is below.

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires all electricity generation to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield 'Energy Bonds'.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered "peaking plants" during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

--

This is just a draft. Of particular interest would be putting dates and targets on some of the desired outcomes. Your input will be greatly appreciated. We will also be discussing this draft charter at our next meeting.

Once this Charter is adopted we can lobby our elected representatives to adopt it as the basis for policy surrounding our electricity needs.

Port Macquarie By-Election

At our last meeting it was raised that there was an anti-electricity privatisation candidate running in the state by-election in Port Macquarie. We as a group decided to support this candidate financially. To make a donation to the anti-power privatisation candidate contact peoplepowerbm@gmail.com

Dealing With Power Companies

Another issue that arose at our last meeting was the difficulty in dealing with power retailers, especially private retailers. To deal with this PeoplePower Blue Mountains will be producing a leaflet on 'how to read your meter', which will also contain information on managing your power demand. This leaflet will be distributed into the community. If you would like to help out with this project contact peoplepowerbm@gmail.com

Penrith Show

We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

PeoplePower Tours!

At our last meeting the possibility was floated of a visit to the wind farm at Hampton. Enquiries are continuing on this.

Another suggestion was a PeoplePower visit to the Power Expo at Mount Piper.

If you are interested in visiting either the Hampton Wind Farm or the Mt Piper Power Expo as part of an organised group tour please email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com to register your interest.

People Power Blog!

We now have our very own Blog, which is full of all the latest news on power privatisation. Check it out at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com/

We are struggling with finding a capable computer to upload Video of our Forum to our YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns but this is expected to be resolved shortly.

What you can do

Get involved now! Take action! Make a difference! The person that stands between Costa and Iemma and Power Privatisation is YOU.

Things that you can do include:

Tell Phil Koperberg you support his opposition to power privatisation

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298

Fax (02) 4751 1245

bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Write to the Gazette

It only takes a few minutes and has a BIG impact. You can email your letters to: editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com

Or post them to:

Letters to the Editor

Blue Mountains Gazette

274 Macquarie Road

Springwood 2777

D-Day For Power Sale

A report from the SMH Breaking News section

Wednesday August 20

D-Day For Power Sale

The fate of the NSW government's electricity privatisation plan should be known on Thursday, when an Auditor-General's review is released.

Premier Morris Iemma asked NSW Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat to review the plan after the state opposition declared it would oppose the sell-off unless the scrutiny occurred.

With a number of Labor MPs also threatening to cross the floor, the power sale legislation would have been defeated.

Mr Achterstraat will hand down the findings of his review into the "transfer of electricity assets to the private sector" on Thursday morning.

He has been examining a model that would see the sale of electricity retailer EnergyAustralia by the end of the year.

The privatisation proposal also includes the public share offering of an combined entity made up of Integral Energy and generator Eraring Energy in the second half of 2009.

The other retailer, Country Energy, is to be sold off, while generators Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation will be leased out in long-term agreements.

Mr Iemma said if Mr Achterstraat gave the proposal his approval it would be the third report to endorse the government's plans.

"The government has always had confidence that our plan to secure the state's future energy needs represents the best result for the economy, taxpayers and the environment," he said.

"The Owen Report, the Unsworth Review and the Rural Community Impact Statement have all endorsed the government's strategy."

Once the auditor-general's report is released, Mr Iemma said Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell must also declare whether he will support the sale in parliament.

"It's release will also set a test for Barry O'Farrell, who has dithered and delayed and hinged his decision on the recommendations of the report," he said.

"He'll have to finally declare his hand tomorrow (Thursday)."

Mr O'Farrell and Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner have said they will await the auditor-general's findings before declaring whether they support the privatisation push.

Mr Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa have also previously said they may amend the proposal if Mr Achterstraat recommends against it.

The privatisation-push has caused a split within NSW Labor ranks after the ALP state conference overwhelmingly rejected the sell-off back in May.

Mr Iemma's defiance of the party vote has caused a rift between him and Labor's head office as well as with some in his own parliamentary team.

Update August 12

PeoplePower Blue Mountains - Update August 12

In this update:

- Welcome

- Upcoming events

- Climate Torch Relay

- Public Forum Report

- Draft Community Charter on Electricity

- Super Saturday August 16

- Penrith Show

- PeoplePower Blog!

- What you can do

Welcome

A big welcome to all the new members of our mailing list coming out of the successful Forum last Sunday, a report of which is below. We look forward to seeing as many community members as possible involved in developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Past updates and the latest information on the campaign can be found on our blog at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com

Upcoming Events

August

Saturday 16 - 'Super Saturday' anti-power privatisation street stalls in Penrith, email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to be a part of securing your electricity future

Tuesday 19 - People Power meeting, 7:30pm, upstairs, Blackburn's Family Hotel. Come along and get involved as we develop our community charter for the future of electricity!

Saturday/Sunday August 30/31 - We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

September

Saturday 13 - Local council elections

Climate Torch relay

PeoplePower received a notice from the local GetUp group regarding the Climate Torch relay in Katoomba this Thursday August 14. An event is also being held today (August 12) in Springwood organised by local peoplepower activist Trevor Guymer, a full report of which should be in next week's Gazette, as well as on the PeoplePower blog. More information on the Relay is available at httpo://www.climatetorch.com

Hello Everyone

Katoomba is going ahead. Rosemary and I are gathering support for an event at the 3 Sisters (Echo Point) at 3:00pm after school.

We are attempting to organize representatives from all schools in the Upper Mountains (Hazelbrook to Mt Victoria) to be present with their school banners for a photo with the 3 Sisters and Jamison Valley in the background.

We have Katoomba Primary, Katoomba High and Lawson Primary interested and will also get support from Wentworth Falls and more than likely Blackheath. There should also be quite a few tourist around as well.

View the torch at www.climatetorch.com

Please call us for more information. It's rushed, it's sketchy but it will happen.

Arthur and Rosemary

0408 57 2511

47572511

Contact Arthur or Rosemary on the numbers above for more information on how you can get involved.

Public Forum

The Community Forum held on August 10th at Katoomba Civic Centre was a huge success; with about 80 people in attendance listening to a range of interesting speakers spread over two forums.

Video of last Sunday's Forum will be going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

The forum was a great springboard for developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity in the Blue Mountains. A draft of the Charter will be circulated within the next day to begin discussion. Your input will be greatly appreciated. We will also be discussing this draft charter at our next meeting.

Once this Charter is adopted we can lobby our elected representatives to adopt it as the basis for policy surrounding our electricity needs.

If you missed Mark Diesendorf he is speaking on Wednesday 13 (tomorrow night) at Parramatta Riverside Theatre at an event put on by the Whitlam Institute. Admission is $15 ($10 concession)

Super Saturday - August 16

This coming Saturday sees the anti-privatisation campaign being rolled out across the community with a day of stalls and petitions. Given the success we have had with lobbying our local member we decided at the last PeoplePower meeting to put our energy into lobbying the community around Penrith.

Email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to help.

Penrith Show

We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

Local council elections

We will be writing to all declared council election candidates for the Blue Mountains City Council asking them to support both our plebiscite and keeping electricity in full public ownership.

At the Public Forum on Sunday the following Ward 1 candidates declared their opposition to privatisation, either in person or by statements forwarded to the meeting:

Eleanor Gibbs (Greens)

Terri Hamilton (Independent)

Kilner Mason (Liberal)

Janet Mays (Independent)

Naomi Parry (ALP)

Robert Stock (Independent)

A number of candidate forums are scheduled in upcoming weeks and these are a good opportunity to question candidates about electricity privatisation.

PeoplePower member peter Hack, who will be attending one of the forums, has suggested that we ask council candidates if they will support local renewable electricity generation (such as wind farms and solar). Locally based "micro" power generators are one of the great suggestions to come our of last Sunday's forum. If you support this initiative then ask council candidates where they stand on this issue.

Candidate forums have been scheduled for:

Monday, August 18th - 6.15pm

Blackheath Chamber of Commerce

Blackheath Mt Victoria RSL Sub-branch Hall, 2 Bundarra Street, Blackheath

All welcome - RSVP 4787 8155

Saturday, August 30th - 2.00pm

Politics in the Pub

Family Hotel, Parke Street, Katoomba

All welcome

Wednesday, Sept 3rd - 7.30pm

Blackheath Neighbourhood Centre, Gardiner Cres, Blackheath

All welcome

(arranged in conjunction with the Katoomba Neighbourhood Centre and the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre)

Council also voted unanimously at its August meeting to oppose power privatisation on a motion from Ward 1 councillor Terri Hamilton. This is a fantastic show of support by our community against the privatisation of our power

People Power Blog!

We now have our very own Blog, which is full of all the latest news on power privatisation. Check it out at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com/

Links to info on local power generation from the UK will be going up soon, as well as the discussion draft of our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Video of last Sunday's Forum going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

What you can do

Get involved now! Take action! Make a difference! The person that stands between Costa and Iemma and Power Privatisation is YOU.

Things that you can do include:

Tell Phil Koperberg you support his opposition to power privatisation

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298

Fax (02) 4751 1245

bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Write to the Gazette

It only takes a few minutes and has a BIG impact. You can email your letters to: editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com

Or post them to:

Letters to the Editor

Blue Mountains Gazette

274 Macquarie Road

Springwood 2777