The West Australian government denies its pre-election promise not to privatise electricity assets was a lie despite freshly-revealed plans to sell off Verve and Synergy.
After Standard & Poor's stripped the state of its AAA credit rating this week, the WA government said power and water utilities, and land and port assets were potentially on the block as the Liberal-led government sought to reduce debt.
Premier Colin Barnett told parliament on Wednesday that assets sales were the quickest and most direct way of doing so.
Energy Minister Mike Nahan has since said power generator Verve and retailer Synergy - which are to be merged on January 1 - would be split within five years into competing electricity businesses that performed both roles, then partly privatised.
"You have to have a big player that has retail - sells to the public - and generation. We're putting them back together, integrating them, and then we would split out," Dr Nahan told reporters on Saturday.
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"And I expect part of that to be sold.
"You put them together, then you split, so you know what is the optimum generation, what are the contracts to sell."
As long as the electricity system was subsidised by the state government - currently to the tune of $380 million a year - it should retain part of Synergy and Verve, he said.
He denied Mr Barnett had lied when he ruled out privatising Verve earlier this year, saying the five-year plan meant any sales would occur outside the state government's current term in office.
"That's down the track," he said.
"Five years is after the next election.
"Last thing I would do is sell generation from the public sector to the private sector if there's a monopoly - that's not on. I'm proposing changes that will evolve the market - not wholesale sell-off."
Dr Nahan said the government was not trying use technicalities to wriggle out of promises made before the March 9 poll.
"In elections, you make certain commitments.
"But you're also elected - when you're faced with problems, such as we're confronting in the electricity industry - to address them.
"I haven't made any promises for the next election, nor has the Premier."
However, he admitted the WA government knew "there was faults in the system" before the last election.
During the campaign, the state opposition argued privatisation was on the Liberals' agenda, while Mr Barnett also ruled out selling power line operator Western Power and regional electricity provider Horizon Power.
