The New South Wales premier has dismissed the opposition’s referral of his office to the corporate watchdog as a stunt, asking if they will go to the United Nations next.
Labor referred the government to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (Asic) over a report released by the bank UBS last week which was altered and reissued a few hours later to be more favourable to electricity privatisation. Mike Baird admitted his office had contacted UBS, a key advisor on the government’s proposed electricity privatisation, before the change was made.
“It is just another stunt by the opposition. What’s next, taking it to the UN?” he said on Monday when questioned about the referral.
“What [voters] are focused on is who has got the capacity to deliver the hospitals, build the roads and the rail, who’s got the capacity to build the schools of the future that they need. We have outlined those plans, those plans come with a significant boost to the economy, that is a great thing.”
Baird said there was no more questions to be answered over the altered report.
“We’ve made the statement last week, there is no change to that. The analyst’s reports did not include the $300bn boost to the economy, that’s the facts,” he said.
“That was at their instigation. They understood that, they’ve made the statement to that effect, that’s it.”
UBS released a report titled “Bad for the budget, good for the state” that said privatising some of the state’s assets could be detrimental to the budget’s bottom line in the long run.
The report said that as government increased spending on infrastructure and lost revenue from the assets, the effect on the bottom line would be negative.
The report, written by David Leitch and Andrew Lilley, was recalled and rereleased on Tuesday afternoon with the title “Good for the state”. It contained added information which listed benefits to the state of privatisation such as productivity benefits from increased government spending.
Opposition leader Luke Foley said Baird should have his electricity privatisation plan evaluated by PBO.
“I’m wondering if Mr Baird will ask the the parliamentary budget office for a costing of his privatisation of the state’s electricity network,” he said on Monday.
Shadow treasurer Michael Daley said he believes Baird or one of his staff breached the principle of government or clients not putting pressure on research analysts when they write reports.
A spokeswoman for Asic said it had received the complaint and would not be commenting further but directed Guardian Australia to the regulatory guide for research providers. The principles are:
- Research report providers should ensure that research reports are based on objective, verifiable facts and analysis, and not on the special interests of the research report provider’s research staff, the product issuer or others.
- Research reports that are not based on reasonable grounds may be misleading or deceptive within the meaning of the Corporations Act
- To reduce the risk that research reports are not based on reasonable grounds, research report providers should ensure that each report reflects the views of the person who takes responsibility for it (eg the person who prepared it or the person who approved its distribution).
- Research report providers should ensure that favourable research is not offered, or changes to research threatened, as an inducement to secure the business of a corporate client or receive other benefits.
