The New South Wales government has refused to rule a Chinese power firm out of the bidding process to privatise the state’s electricity assets despite the company being investigated for corruption.
Mike Baird, the state premier, met with an executive of the Chinese-owned State Grid Corp and the treasurer, Andrew Constance, has had discussions with the company about leasing NSW electricity assets. A government audit taken of the company, and of China Southern Power Grid Company, in the past year is reported to have uncovered allegations of corruption including that more than $1bn had been misappropriated while running an electricity grid system.
With Baird staking his election on Saturday on his proposal to lease 49% of the state’s electricity assets for 99 years he hit out at Labor for what he said was an “unbelievable” and “dishonest” campaign against privatisation.
Asked if he would rule out allowing State Grid Corp in particular to bid, Baird sidestepped the question.
“We would consider, obviously, foreign investment, but only on our terms, only in a way where we protect the people of NSW, we control the terms, we control pricing, we control the process, we control the bidders,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“We do it our way, and of course there are protections, the foreign investment review board which can consider national security, but it is our terms. No one else is in control of this process. Not Japan, not China, not Canada, not the US, it is us, we are the ones in control.”
Constance has accused the Labor party of being xenophobic by using the interest from China to campaign against privatisation but Baird did not go that far.
“[It’s] the latest desperate scare campaign from Labor, that’s what it is, it is unbelievable in how desperate this campaign is, it shows they have nothing to offer the people of New South Wales,” he said.
Baird spent Thursday morning campaigning in Sydney, even going to the safe Labor seat of Auburn, where the party leader, Luke Foley, is running. Polls still have the premier ahead of Foley, with the latest poll putting the Coalition ahead of the Labor party on 46% of the primary vote while Labor is on 34%.
Privatisation continues to be the main issue of the final day of the campaign, with Baird emphasising it is not a sale.
“We are in control, there is no transaction, there is no transaction because we haven’t had an acceptance from the people of New South Wales that they want us to continue in government,” he said. “It is a lease, nothing is for sale, this is a lease, and it’s 49%;we take the rent upfront, we do it on our terms and I’m used to these transactions, I’ve done them before.
“I understand the transaction; Labor, Luke Foley doesn’t understand the transactions, we’ve done it before, we do it on our terms, our way and we control the pricing, the bidding, we do it on the basis of the people of New South Wales and their interest.”
Baird was also asked about the news Zayn Malik from One Direction had left the band.
“All four [of the rest] of them should leave,” he said, laughing.
