NSW inquiry quizzes unions on 'racist' ads

Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon has faced questions about a "racist" advertisement aired at the height of the NSW election campaign that warned against the Baird government's poles and wires plan.

The NSW government wants to lease out 49 per cent of the state's electricity infrastructure and the television advertisements suggested the State Grid Corporation of China was lining up to bid.

"Mr Lennon, who in the CFMEU authorised the racist anti-Chinese campaign against the sale of these assets?" Liberal MP Peter Phelps asked.

"I don't know," Mr Lennon replied.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is a member union of the peak body headed up by Mr Lennon.

Asked if he agreed with the sentiments expressed in the campaign, Mr Lennon said he was concerned by the possibility that essential services might be sold to state-owned foreign companies "run by what are indeed authoritarian governments".

Quizzed on why the union ads singled out State Grid Corporation - rather than other interested parties such as pension funds in Canada - Mr Lennon asked: "You're saying that Canada and America are run by authoritarian governments?"

"I'm saying that the CFMEU ran a racist campaign of explicit xenophobia designed to tap into the worst instincts of Australians for its own political purposes," Dr Phelps shot back.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Lennon told the NSW parliament's poles and wires inquiry that union polling suggested 60 per cent of the state's residents were still not on board with the privatisation plan.

"Despite the outcome of the election, it's clear from the polling we've done that there's still not majority support in the community for this proposal for the privatisation of our electricity network," Mr Lennon told the inquiry.

"I don't think the government can claim a mandate."

Steve Butler of the Electrical Trades Union said the proposed lease plan would push up power prices and strip entry-level jobs from the industry.

"Apprenticeships in other states that have privatised didn't just diminish, they disappeared completely," Mr Butler told the inquiry on Friday morning.

The public inquiry wraps up on Monday with a report due next month.