NSW Labor leader Luke Foley says his party has lost the battle to keep the state's poles and wires in public hands and it's time to move on.
Premier Mike Baird and Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian watched on from the public gallery as their electricity network privatisation bills scraped through the parliament's upper house in a late-night sitting on Wednesday, having secured the support of balance-of-power MP Fred Nile.
Although Labor fought the laws to the last, voting against them alongside the Greens and Shooters & Fishers MPs, Mr Foley on Thursday said it was time for the party to move on.
"There are many other issues in state politics, and under my leadership the party will not have an obsessive focus on this one issue," Mr Foley told reporters in front of parliament.
"We won't be fighting the last war."
Mr Baird has spent the morning talking up the projects that 99-year leases for Transgrid, Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy will fund.
He confirmed plans for a 66km high-capacity rail line that will include a rail tunnel under Sydney Harbour.
Sydney Rapid Transit, renamed Sydney Metro, will run from Rouse Hill in the city's northwest, past Chatswood and North Sydney, under the harbour to Sydenham and west to Bankstown.
Together with upgrades to the Western Line, it will deliver a 60 per cent capacity increase across the rail network, Transport Minister Andrew Constance said on Thursday.
But Mr Foley says he wants to "wait and see" whether the premier can raise the $20 billion he is counting on.
"The electricity privatisation debate is over - the debates now in state politics are about delivery, and we'll be holding Mr Baird's government to account on the delivery of his very grand promises," Mr Foley said.
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