Libs will sell Water Corp: McGowan

The ACCC says privatising WA's poles and wires will lead to lower prices, but Labor's Mark McGowan rejects warns the Water Corp could be sold off next.

WA Opposition Leader Mark McGowan

WA Labor leader Mark McGowan warns Premier Colin Barnett will privatise the state's water if elected (AAP)

WA Labor leader Mark McGowan says Premier Colin Barnett will privatise the state's water next if he is re-elected on Saturday and sells Western Power.

The government's plans to sell 51 per cent of the poles and wires electricity utility are arguably the biggest election issue.

The Liberals claim it will raise $11 billion including getting rid of $8 billion in debt and $3 billion in proceeds.

Labor says it will drive up prices, reduce state income, maintenance standards, security of supply and jobs and fall into foreign hands.

Labor released a series of past statements by Mr Barnett dating back to June 2012 opposing privatisation to emphasise that he broke his promises.

The most recent statement by him from February 2016 had him opposing the sale and describing Western Power as critical to WA's development and saying South Australia's weak economy was due to it selling off such assets.

"I'm not going to let WA get in that position," he said.

Labor is using that as proof he would privatise other government bodies.

"If Mr Barnett is elected he'll sell off Western Power, he'll sell off Fremantle Port and look out Water Corporation, that will be the next public utility on the chopping block," Mr McGowan told reporters.

The premier on Tuesday rejected those claims.

"We will not in any way be contemplating any further privatisations such as the Water Corporation," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Australia's competition chief Rod Sims told The West Australian newspaper he thought privatising Western Power would lead to lower prices.

A new private owner would run it more efficiently and he believed "the regulator would make sure those efficiencies resulted in lower prices", he said.

Mr McGowan rejected that, arguing prices in Victoria and South Australia had risen by more after privatisation and that because WA was not part of the grid, it had more security of supply issues.

Reports in recent years by the Australian Energy Regulator and others and official statistics have struggled to find correlations between higher bills and privatisation.

Last month the Australian Services Union was forced to withdraw a pre-election commercial in WA after Mr Sims complained footage of him warning privatisation leads to higher consumer prices was taken out of context.

The ASU and Electrical Trades Union hit back on Tuesday with their own report, claiming the government would reap a much smaller windfall than forecast from the planned 51 per cent privatisation of Western Power.

The report by Orion Consulting Network concluded that the sale would only yield net proceeds of just under $1 billion, compared with government claims of $3 billion, and the state government will be $276.5 million a year worse off in proceeds.


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Source: AAP



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