No power sell off without mandate baird 20140419 p5s4jr.html – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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This was published 12 years ago

No power sell-off without mandate: Baird

AAP

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NSW Premier Mike Baird. (AAP)

NSW Premier Mike Baird. (AAP) AAP

New NSW Premier Mike Baird has hosed down suggestions he is preparing to sell off the state's poles and wires.

Mr Baird told reporters on Saturday he believed that experience interstate showed electricity asset privatisation could lead to lower prices for households.

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"But that is not a green light here," he said.

"Before the election we said there would be no sale and it would only be undertaken if there was a mandate.

"That position has not changed.

"The cabinet has not considered it, the party room has not considered it."

Mr Baird supported privatising the state's $30 billion worth of electricity infrastructure as treasurer.

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said Mr Baird appeared to have made up his mind already.

"Mike Baird has been an advocate for the sale of poles and wires for some time," Mr Robertson said.

"Even as treasurer, he was hawking himself around the boardrooms of Sydney and elsewhere saying how keen he was to sell off electricity poles and wires."

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Mr Robertson said any electricity sell-off - along with a broadening of the GST, which News Corp Australia on Saturday reported had Mr Baird's support - would hurt vulnerable families.

"Mike Baird is someone who is out of touch with the ordinary, everyday struggles that families are having," Mr Robertson told reporters.

"The sale of electricity poles and wires will push household bills up."

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