WA Premier Colin Barnett has been abused and heckled while speaking to a hostile crowd of hundreds of people rallying against plans to privatise utility Western Power.
Mr Barnett tried to explain the government's plans, saying it would be good for West Australians and all but guaranteed that their electricity bills would not go up because the company would be regulated.
The debt-laden company could "pay interest to banks or dividends to Australian super funds", he said outside Parliament House, again flagging a desire to sell the poles and wires utility to superannuation funds.
He was booed and shouted down by a crowd of mostly union members chanting "Western Power not for sale" and "it's our power Colin".
Unions WA member Tim Dymond insisted the overseas experience showed privatisation led to a worse service for higher prices as private providers extracted profit.
"It's not that governments can't take bad decisions but they are also accountable through the ballot box as well in a way that big private companies are not," he told AAP.
University of WA English lecturer Stephen Dedman attended the rally and said privatising Western Power would mean the public lost control of an essential service including its maintenance.
"The environmental impact of cutting services or maintenance would be disastrous - climate change is going to mean we have more bushfires," he said.
WA Labor leader Mark McGowan was cheered at the rally when he guaranteed a government with him as premier would never privatise the company.
Treasurer Mike Nahan, who has driven the privatisation push, accused Labor last week of running a "Trump-like propaganda campaign" in saying it would threaten energy supplies.
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