The Barnett government has seized on Australia's competition chief Rod Sims comments that the plan to privatise WA's poles and wires utility Western Power would lead to lower prices.
Mr Sims told The West Australian newspaper a new private owner would run it more efficiently and he believed the regulator would ensure those efficiencies resulted in lower prices for consumers.
Treasurer Mike Nahan said Mr Sims' comments showed up union and Labor "lies" about the planned 51 per cent privatisation of Western Power leading to higher prices.
"Rod Sims, who actually will regulate the business in the future, says that's simply not true," Dr Nahan told reporters on Tuesday.
Premier Colin Barnett said privatisations of other poles and wires business in Australia showed that prices did not rise.
"If anything, they fall," Mr Barnett told reporters.
"Bear in mind Western Power does not sell electricity. All it does is transport it."
Mr Barnett said he believed Western Power was well run but private operators would change the culture of the organisation, creating efficiencies.
Last month, the Australian Services Union was forced to withdraw a pre-election advertisement in WA after Mr Sims complained footage of him warning privatisation leads to higher consumer prices was taken out of context.
He said he was referring to consumers paying higher prices when monopoly assets that were not well regulated, such as ports, were privatised.
The ASU and Electrical Trades Union hit back on Tuesday with their own report, claiming the government would reap a much smaller windfall from the sale than forecast.
The report by Orion Consulting Network concluded the sale would only yield net proceeds of just under $1 billion, compared with government claims of $3 billion.
The consultants also concluded the state government would be $276.5 million a year worse off including factors such as dividends.
But Mr Barnett talked up the planned sale, which is a central plank of the Liberal re-election campaign, saying the WA government would always have a direct say in what happens with Western Power as its biggest shareholder with a 49 per cent stake.
"Yes, it may not be popular but the Liberal party policy of selling half of Western Power gives us a clear financial plan, one that will reduce debt to very manageable proportions ... and one that will allow us to return to surplus over the next four years."
WA Labor won't sell Western Power, saying it provides much-needed revenue, while the ETU fears maintenance standards will fall, presenting a bushfire risk.
The union has cited Victoria's deadly Black Saturday bushfires as an example of why such important infrastructure should not be placed into private hands.
Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson says her One Nation party will also not support the sale.
Share
