Labor is ratcheting up its anti-privatisation rhetoric before Saturday's election, suggesting NSW could face serious security risks should its electricity assets be sold to Chinese investors.
With three days until NSW voters go to the polls, Opposition Leader Luke Foley has continued to attack Premier Mike Baird's plan to lease 49 per cent of the state's poles and wires.
Campaigning on the Central Coast, Mr Foley seized on revelations that Treasurer Andrew Constance had met with representatives from a Chinese government-owned company, with The China Daily reporting a meeting about the sale of the network.
"I don't think it's a smart thing to do to sell our electricity network to a foreign government," Mr Foley said in the marginal electorate of Swansea.
The Labor leader insisted his concern wasn't because the company was Chinese - just that it was not Australian.
"Transgrid ... powers Parliament House," he said.
"The distribution network goes to Holsworthy Army base, to the Richmond RAAF base, to our defence installations.
"Of course the security agencies (including ASIO, ASIS) will have some views on these matters."
Mr Baird was repeatedly asked during a tense press conference to reveal details of his September trip to China after Labor senator Sam Dastyari accused the premier of failing to disclose whom he met with in his official diary.
"I'm not going to get into the details of individual meetings, forums, a whole range of investment discussions I may have had," he said.
Mr Baird insisted he has met with "hundreds, if not thousands" of people during his time as treasurer and premier and would not engage in "diary bingo" with journalists.
A spokesman for Mr Baird said legal advice given to the Department of Premier and Cabinet indicated the release of ministers' meetings while on official overseas missions should not be disclosed through the ministerial diary process as there is "appropriate disclosure" of such meetings through mission reports.
While the mission report for Mr Baird's China trip outlines some of the key figures he met, it doesn't include a full list of investors and businesses who held meetings with the premier and his delegation.
Mr Foley expressed a lack of faith in the Foreign Investment Review Board over the sale of electricity assets.
"And the thing about high voltage transmission lines is that you can transport data on high voltage lines," he said.
"So whoever owns the transmission business will have an extraordinary capacity into the future.
"I don't see the Foreign Investment Review Board as sufficient protection for the people of NSW."
Share
