PRESS RELEASE November 7 2008

Mountains households threatened by privatisation push

Blue Mountains households are being threatened by a new push by the Rees government to privatise electricity in NSW.

The move will see electricity retailers sold off and control of wholesale electricity trading shifted to private operators.

“Ninety six percent of NSW households use a government owned retailer,” said PeoplePower Blue Mountains spokesperson Phil Doyle. “Once this shifts into the hands of the private sector any guarantees the government has given about price controls or job protection won’t be worth the paper they’re written on.

“We have seen in Victoria that these controls can be dumped at the drop of a hat.

“Ask Victorians who experienced a 17 percent increase in power prices and hundreds of jobs sent to overseas call centres what they think of retail electricity privatisation.

“For households it’s a disaster.

“The proposal the government is putting forward over electricity trading is also problematic.

“It was put up in 2001 and 2004 and rejected by the NSW Treasury for the simple fact that it won’t work.

“In the end the cost-risk will be shifted onto households, creating a double whammy.

“None of what the Rees government is doing will help manage electricity demand or help a shift to sustainable energy supplies.

“Instead the government has put this in the too hard basket, shrugging its responsibility to serve the community interest.

Doyle pointed out that Nathan Rees’ predecessor lost his job over electricity privatisation and any politicians that supported this new plan would suffer the same fate.

“This is bad for households, bad for the environment and bad for the economy,” said Doyle.

PeoplePower Blue Mountains will be meeting at 8pm on Thursday November 13, upstairs at Blackburn’s Family Hotel in Parke Street Katoomba to discuss the community response to Rees’ privatisation plans.

A public meeting is planned for the same venue on Thursday November 20 to inform the community about what is contained in the Rees electricity privatisation plan.

Special Update August 31 - It's not over for retail electricity!

NOTE - An emergency meeting of PeoplePower Blue Mountains is scheduled for Tuesday night, from 7.30pm, upstairs at Blackburn's Family Hotel, 15 Parke Street Katoomba. IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT PLEASE READ THE INFO BELOW ON HOW YOU CAN STILL HAVE IMPORTANT INPUT

For a brief few hours last Thursday it looked like we had won, and in any event we have had a partial victory.

While the generators have been kept in public hands the all important retailers - the people who send us our bills - are being targeted for a sell off despite the government's own hand-picked advisors recommending against this.

In February this year the Iemma government promised that privatisation would go to a vote. They have reneged on that commitment by pressing ahead with a proposal that will be a disaster for NSW consumers, jobs and the environment.

This issue, however, is far from over.

PeoplePower Blue Mountains has come up with a strategy that we believe can influence the decision to sell of electricity retailers.

We are starting a campaign where candidates across councils commit to establishing not-for-profit electricity retailers as a function of local government.

It works like this: two or more councils that share a region - think the Hunter, the Central West or Western Sydney - band together to purchase wholesale electricity that they then on-sell to ratepayers and residents on a not-for-profit basis.

The strengths are that it keeps electricity retail in publicly owned hands, protects consumers and creates job opportunities in electricity retail. There is also the opportunity for this model to develop the sort of bulk market for renewables that would make those forms of generation more viable. In short it has the capacity to make electricity affordable, reliable and sustainable.

With local government elections two weeks away we will need to work quickly to make this an issue in the upcoming council election campaign.

We already have a range of candidates across parties committed to implementing this program in Blue Mountains, Penrith and Blacktown local government areas. We are looking to expand the commitment to Lithgow, Bathurst, Newcastle , Maitland, Cessnock and Mudgee in coming days.

This would obviously influence the viability of selling off electricity retail (who would buy Integral Energy if it was going to have to compete with a not-for-profit retailer?). It would also blind-side the Government and make the forthcoming council elections a de-facto referendum on privatising retail electricity.

We need YOU to assist us in publicising and effecting this strategy across as many councils as possible.

We are very keen to see this idea get maximum exposure and ask for your assistance in this.

Things you can do include:

- Forwarding this update to as many of your friends as possible across NSW.
- Contacting council candidates and asking them to support establishing regional not-for-profit electricity retailers through councils working together. A list of council candidates for every council is available from http://election.nsw.gov.au/ElectionWebService/indexPage.html
- Come to the PeoplePower emergency meeting on Tuesday night (details at the top of this email)

If JackGreen can do it, so can local government.

Blue Mountains Electricity Charter

The second part of our strategy is getting our local, state and federal politicians to endorse our Blue Mountains Electricity Charter.

Because of the urgency of this issue we will be moving to adopt a charter on Tuesday night. A draft of the charter is below - if you have any additions, or amendments you would like to suggest but cannot attend the meeting please forward these through to peoplepowerbm@gmail.com as soon as possible so they can be included in the meeting. Otherwise you can discuss them at the meeting.

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires electricity generation and distribution to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield ‘Energy Bonds’.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered “peaking plants” during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

You can still stop the power sell off - contact Phil Koperberg

Despite winning the debate, having four out of five people in the state opposed to power privatisation, and having a majority of politicians in the NSW Upper House opposed to electricity privatisation, the Iemma government is still persisting with the incredibly flawed strategy of selling electrcity retailers: the people who send us our power bill.

This flies in the face of their own biased reports, from Owen onwards. Whatever happened to their argument that this was all about securing our energy needs? It turns out that all along it was about Morris Iemma getting HIS hands on a pile of cash by selling YOUR assets.

It is imperative that you contact our local MP, Phil Koperberg and demand that Parliament be recalled immediately.

Let Phil Koperberg know that the Iemma government promised that the sale of the retail arm of electricity - the people we get our bills from - would be debated and voted on in Parliament. Michael Costa promised this in the Upper House in February this year. Without legislation NONE of the so called protections announced by Costa and Iemma are protected by legislation, and their word is not worth anything.

Let Phil Koperberg know that the very legitimacy of his position is at stake. If a government he is a part of can betray its own commitments in this brazen fashion then it no longer deserves the respect of the people of NSW.

Phil Koperberg, as our local representative, has a choice. Either he continues to support the a leadership that has betrayed it's own commitments, given in parliament, or he stands with his electorate. The choice is stark, and clear.

Does Phil Koperberg want to go down in history as a man who served his community, or as a man who betrayed his community and made an essential service, electricity, unaffordable for thousands of Blue Mountains households?

The secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson, said that the Iemma government had "signed its own political death warrants". We agree.

If Phil Koperberg cannot deliver the recall of parliament then he too has signed his political death warrant.

You can let Mr Koperberg know by contacting his office directly - a phone call is recommended.

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298
Fax (02) 4751 1245
bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Auditor Blows Hole in Iemma Arguments

Below is a report from the ABC about the Auditor Generals report into power privatisation.

Far from being a ringing endorsement of the Costa/Iemma move, it has instead exposed two fatal flaws - italicised in the ABC report below.

The AG is calling for a reserve price to be set, which will make a mockery of the wildly optimistic $15Billion figure that Costa and Iemma have been bandying around like a pair of Parramatta Road used car salesmen. The second flaw is that the AG totally rejects the Costa/Iemma timetable, calling on the essential services to be sold off simultaneously. This is going to lead to what will effectively be a fire sale of an asset owned by the people of NSW that Iemma has no mandate to toy with.

New South Wales Parliament is being recalled early from its winter break to debate the Government's electricity privatisation legislation.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, has been emboldened by the Auditor-General's positive review of the sale strategy and by his statement that it should happen sooner, rather than later.

In his report, handed down yesterday, Peter Achterstraat said he found nothing to suggest the strategy is not appropriate for maximising financial value for taxpayers.

He has suggested the Government should set a reserve price for each transaction and not proceed unless that is met.

He also said the Government should consider off-loading the generators and retailers simultaneously, rather than sequentially as is proposed.

The ABC understands MPs could now be called back to Macquarie Street as early as the end of next week to debate the legislation.

The Speaker, Richard Torbay, says it would not be difficult to organise.

"The Parliament is obviously there, established and ready to go," he said.

Mr Torbay was still waiting for official notification yesterday afternoon, but said the early recall is achievable.

"We would need to obviously notify all the MPs," he said.

"That can be done at very short notice, even a day or two, allowing members to travel to get to Parliament House and obviously undertake a sitting of Parliament on a special basis."

The recall puts extra pressure on the Opposition to state its position.

Business groups say there is no call for further delays, but Greens MP John Kaye believes the Opposition still has room to move.

"The report was so narrow it failed to look at retention," he said.

He says at the very least the legislation should be delayed until the shape of the emissions trading scheme is known.

The swift action is being backed by an alliance of business groups, who say the Auditor-General's review of the sale strategy leaves no room for doubters.

Draft Community Charter

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires all electricity generation to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield ‘Energy Bonds’.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered “peaking plants” during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

Update August 21

PeoplePower Blue Mountains - Update August 21

In this update:

- Upcoming events

- Draft Community Charter on Electricity

- Port Macquarie By-Election

- Dealing With Power Companies

- Penrith Show

- PeoplePower Blog!

- What you can do

Upcoming Events

August

Saturday/Sunday August 30/31 - We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

September

Tuesday 2 - People Power meeting, 7:30pm, upstairs, Blackburn's Family Hotel. Come along and get involved as we develop our community charter for the future of electricity!

Saturday 13 - Local council elections

Draft Community Charter on Electricity

At our forum on August 10 we committed ourselves to developing a Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity in the Blue Mountains. A draft of the Charter is below.

Draft

Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity In The Blue Mountains

The Ten Point Plan

The people of the Blue Mountains want reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity. We recognise that the current use of coal fired base load power stations is unsustainable, increasingly unreliable and ultimately unaffordable. We are committed to addressing the impact of climate change on future generations by reducing the use of carbon based electricity generation. To achieve this all levels of government must work within the following policy objectives.

1. The future of electricity needs to address the issue of climate change by moving to renewable energy supplies.

2. Managing the change from carbon-based electricity to renewable electricity requires all electricity generation to remain in public hands.

3. The cost of this change must not be imposed on low-income earners.

4. The cost of this change should be supported by the issuing of high yield 'Energy Bonds'.

5. Electricity efficiency must be increased in all households and businesses to decrease demand for electricity. Changes to household and business infrastructure to increase the efficiency of electricity usage will be subsidised by electricity generators.

6. To achieve objective 5 an education campaign amongst households and businesses will be implemented. This information for households and businesses will not only cover information on how to reduce electricity demand, but also on monitoring their demand through information on how to read your electricity meter.

7. The Blue Mountains must move to renewable electricity supplies as a matter of urgency through the creation of community owned and based generators powered by wind and solar.

8. As an interim measure the Blue Mountains may use gas powered "peaking plants" during the transition process.

9. The Blue Mountains recognises that there is no need for a new base load generator if objectives 2, 5, 7, and 8 are achieved.

10. All levels of government need to increase investment in renewable energy research, development and infrastructure rollout as a policy priority.

--

This is just a draft. Of particular interest would be putting dates and targets on some of the desired outcomes. Your input will be greatly appreciated. We will also be discussing this draft charter at our next meeting.

Once this Charter is adopted we can lobby our elected representatives to adopt it as the basis for policy surrounding our electricity needs.

Port Macquarie By-Election

At our last meeting it was raised that there was an anti-electricity privatisation candidate running in the state by-election in Port Macquarie. We as a group decided to support this candidate financially. To make a donation to the anti-power privatisation candidate contact peoplepowerbm@gmail.com

Dealing With Power Companies

Another issue that arose at our last meeting was the difficulty in dealing with power retailers, especially private retailers. To deal with this PeoplePower Blue Mountains will be producing a leaflet on 'how to read your meter', which will also contain information on managing your power demand. This leaflet will be distributed into the community. If you would like to help out with this project contact peoplepowerbm@gmail.com

Penrith Show

We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

PeoplePower Tours!

At our last meeting the possibility was floated of a visit to the wind farm at Hampton. Enquiries are continuing on this.

Another suggestion was a PeoplePower visit to the Power Expo at Mount Piper.

If you are interested in visiting either the Hampton Wind Farm or the Mt Piper Power Expo as part of an organised group tour please email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com to register your interest.

People Power Blog!

We now have our very own Blog, which is full of all the latest news on power privatisation. Check it out at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com/

We are struggling with finding a capable computer to upload Video of our Forum to our YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns but this is expected to be resolved shortly.

What you can do

Get involved now! Take action! Make a difference! The person that stands between Costa and Iemma and Power Privatisation is YOU.

Things that you can do include:

Tell Phil Koperberg you support his opposition to power privatisation

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298

Fax (02) 4751 1245

bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Write to the Gazette

It only takes a few minutes and has a BIG impact. You can email your letters to: editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com

Or post them to:

Letters to the Editor

Blue Mountains Gazette

274 Macquarie Road

Springwood 2777

D-Day For Power Sale

A report from the SMH Breaking News section

Wednesday August 20

D-Day For Power Sale

The fate of the NSW government's electricity privatisation plan should be known on Thursday, when an Auditor-General's review is released.

Premier Morris Iemma asked NSW Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat to review the plan after the state opposition declared it would oppose the sell-off unless the scrutiny occurred.

With a number of Labor MPs also threatening to cross the floor, the power sale legislation would have been defeated.

Mr Achterstraat will hand down the findings of his review into the "transfer of electricity assets to the private sector" on Thursday morning.

He has been examining a model that would see the sale of electricity retailer EnergyAustralia by the end of the year.

The privatisation proposal also includes the public share offering of an combined entity made up of Integral Energy and generator Eraring Energy in the second half of 2009.

The other retailer, Country Energy, is to be sold off, while generators Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation will be leased out in long-term agreements.

Mr Iemma said if Mr Achterstraat gave the proposal his approval it would be the third report to endorse the government's plans.

"The government has always had confidence that our plan to secure the state's future energy needs represents the best result for the economy, taxpayers and the environment," he said.

"The Owen Report, the Unsworth Review and the Rural Community Impact Statement have all endorsed the government's strategy."

Once the auditor-general's report is released, Mr Iemma said Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell must also declare whether he will support the sale in parliament.

"It's release will also set a test for Barry O'Farrell, who has dithered and delayed and hinged his decision on the recommendations of the report," he said.

"He'll have to finally declare his hand tomorrow (Thursday)."

Mr O'Farrell and Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner have said they will await the auditor-general's findings before declaring whether they support the privatisation push.

Mr Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa have also previously said they may amend the proposal if Mr Achterstraat recommends against it.

The privatisation-push has caused a split within NSW Labor ranks after the ALP state conference overwhelmingly rejected the sell-off back in May.

Mr Iemma's defiance of the party vote has caused a rift between him and Labor's head office as well as with some in his own parliamentary team.

Update August 12

PeoplePower Blue Mountains - Update August 12

In this update:

- Welcome

- Upcoming events

- Climate Torch Relay

- Public Forum Report

- Draft Community Charter on Electricity

- Super Saturday August 16

- Penrith Show

- PeoplePower Blog!

- What you can do

Welcome

A big welcome to all the new members of our mailing list coming out of the successful Forum last Sunday, a report of which is below. We look forward to seeing as many community members as possible involved in developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Past updates and the latest information on the campaign can be found on our blog at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com

Upcoming Events

August

Saturday 16 - 'Super Saturday' anti-power privatisation street stalls in Penrith, email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to be a part of securing your electricity future

Tuesday 19 - People Power meeting, 7:30pm, upstairs, Blackburn's Family Hotel. Come along and get involved as we develop our community charter for the future of electricity!

Saturday/Sunday August 30/31 - We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

September

Saturday 13 - Local council elections

Climate Torch relay

PeoplePower received a notice from the local GetUp group regarding the Climate Torch relay in Katoomba this Thursday August 14. An event is also being held today (August 12) in Springwood organised by local peoplepower activist Trevor Guymer, a full report of which should be in next week's Gazette, as well as on the PeoplePower blog. More information on the Relay is available at httpo://www.climatetorch.com

Hello Everyone

Katoomba is going ahead. Rosemary and I are gathering support for an event at the 3 Sisters (Echo Point) at 3:00pm after school.

We are attempting to organize representatives from all schools in the Upper Mountains (Hazelbrook to Mt Victoria) to be present with their school banners for a photo with the 3 Sisters and Jamison Valley in the background.

We have Katoomba Primary, Katoomba High and Lawson Primary interested and will also get support from Wentworth Falls and more than likely Blackheath. There should also be quite a few tourist around as well.

View the torch at www.climatetorch.com

Please call us for more information. It's rushed, it's sketchy but it will happen.

Arthur and Rosemary

0408 57 2511

47572511

Contact Arthur or Rosemary on the numbers above for more information on how you can get involved.

Public Forum

The Community Forum held on August 10th at Katoomba Civic Centre was a huge success; with about 80 people in attendance listening to a range of interesting speakers spread over two forums.

Video of last Sunday's Forum will be going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

The forum was a great springboard for developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity in the Blue Mountains. A draft of the Charter will be circulated within the next day to begin discussion. Your input will be greatly appreciated. We will also be discussing this draft charter at our next meeting.

Once this Charter is adopted we can lobby our elected representatives to adopt it as the basis for policy surrounding our electricity needs.

If you missed Mark Diesendorf he is speaking on Wednesday 13 (tomorrow night) at Parramatta Riverside Theatre at an event put on by the Whitlam Institute. Admission is $15 ($10 concession)

Super Saturday - August 16

This coming Saturday sees the anti-privatisation campaign being rolled out across the community with a day of stalls and petitions. Given the success we have had with lobbying our local member we decided at the last PeoplePower meeting to put our energy into lobbying the community around Penrith.

Email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to help.

Penrith Show

We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

Local council elections

We will be writing to all declared council election candidates for the Blue Mountains City Council asking them to support both our plebiscite and keeping electricity in full public ownership.

At the Public Forum on Sunday the following Ward 1 candidates declared their opposition to privatisation, either in person or by statements forwarded to the meeting:

Eleanor Gibbs (Greens)

Terri Hamilton (Independent)

Kilner Mason (Liberal)

Janet Mays (Independent)

Naomi Parry (ALP)

Robert Stock (Independent)

A number of candidate forums are scheduled in upcoming weeks and these are a good opportunity to question candidates about electricity privatisation.

PeoplePower member peter Hack, who will be attending one of the forums, has suggested that we ask council candidates if they will support local renewable electricity generation (such as wind farms and solar). Locally based "micro" power generators are one of the great suggestions to come our of last Sunday's forum. If you support this initiative then ask council candidates where they stand on this issue.

Candidate forums have been scheduled for:

Monday, August 18th - 6.15pm

Blackheath Chamber of Commerce

Blackheath Mt Victoria RSL Sub-branch Hall, 2 Bundarra Street, Blackheath

All welcome - RSVP 4787 8155

Saturday, August 30th - 2.00pm

Politics in the Pub

Family Hotel, Parke Street, Katoomba

All welcome

Wednesday, Sept 3rd - 7.30pm

Blackheath Neighbourhood Centre, Gardiner Cres, Blackheath

All welcome

(arranged in conjunction with the Katoomba Neighbourhood Centre and the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre)

Council also voted unanimously at its August meeting to oppose power privatisation on a motion from Ward 1 councillor Terri Hamilton. This is a fantastic show of support by our community against the privatisation of our power

People Power Blog!

We now have our very own Blog, which is full of all the latest news on power privatisation. Check it out at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com/

Links to info on local power generation from the UK will be going up soon, as well as the discussion draft of our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Video of last Sunday's Forum going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

What you can do

Get involved now! Take action! Make a difference! The person that stands between Costa and Iemma and Power Privatisation is YOU.

Things that you can do include:

Tell Phil Koperberg you support his opposition to power privatisation

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298

Fax (02) 4751 1245

bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Write to the Gazette

It only takes a few minutes and has a BIG impact. You can email your letters to: editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com

Or post them to:

Letters to the Editor

Blue Mountains Gazette

274 Macquarie Road

Springwood 2777

COMMUNITY KEEPS LIGHTS ON

Don McGregor (left) moderating the forum on the politics of electricity which featured Greens MLC John Kaye (centre) and local power industry worker Rex Drummond (Right)

The forum on the science and technology of electricity was moderated by El Gibbs (left) and featured (left to right) Dr Mark Diesendorf from the University of NSW, local Climate Change campaigner Liz Bastian and electricity industry expert Simon Bolt.

All of the forum participants took part in a Q&A session with the 80 odd members of the audience.

PeoplePower Blue Mountains Press Release August 12

Over 80 people braved snowy conditions in Katoomba on August 10 to hear expert speakers outline problems, including privatisation and the impact of climate change, that threaten Blue Mountains electricity supplies.

Speakers including Dr Mark Diesendorf from the University of New South Wales, industry expert Simon Bolt and Greens MP Dr John Kaye rejected the need for a new base load generator, pointing to the need to address energy efficiency urgently to ensure that households and business can use less electricity as prices go up.

The panel pointed out the inefficiency of current power supplies, the risk of dependence on increasingly expensive carbon based power and the need for electricity to become sustainable.

"Change is inevitable," said Phil Doyle from PeoplePower Blue Mountains who co-sponsored the forum. "We learnt from the experts that we need to manage that change so the cost doesn't fall on households and businesses that are already under financial pressure, that means keeping power in publicly owned hands."

Local MP Phil Koperberg, who gave the keynote address, reaffirmed his opposition to the existing power privatisation proposal, and talked about the need for solutions to be found for a basic necessity in this day and age, electricity being something Blue Mountains households need to cook and keep warm with.

Out of the forum PeoplePower Blue Mountains is developing a Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

"There were some great solutions put forward, from energy bonds through to the development of micro-generators powered by renewable energy - these are initiatives that we as a community can push for," said Doyle "We look forward to seeing as many community members as possible involved in developing this charter, which will form the basis of where our electricity will be coming from in the future."

PeoplePower Blue Mountains welcomed a unanimous vote by Blue Mountains City Council to oppose power privatisation on a motion from councillor Terri Hamilton.

The community group will be writing to all declared Blue Mountains City Council election candidates for the asking them to keep electricity in full public ownership and to support initiatives that secured reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity.

"Give Me The Shekels"

The ABC is reporting on a protest outside the ALP's Sussex Street headquarters by power workers and consumers as Morris Iemma fronted the party's Admin Committee today (August7, 2008).

Protesters accused Iemma of selling out the state and asked him to "show us the shekels".

Here's how the ABC reported it:

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma says he has held a 'frank' discussion with Labor's Administrative Committee about electricity privatisation and they plan to keep talking.

Mr Iemma says the Government has never closed the door on discussions and he is still willing to consider any proposition that can deliver on the state's interests.

But the Premier found himself struggling to be heard over the sounds of a heckler at a post-meeting media conference.

The man shouted 'You're a sell out' and 'Give me the shekels' as Mr Iemma tried to explain what was discussed.

The issue has caused deep divisions within the party and a small group of power workers demonstrating outside the meeting said Morris Iemma's days are numbered.

Graeme McNeill from the Liddell Power Station, in the NSW Hunter Valley, said rank and file members feel absolutely betrayed by the Premier.

"They are ready to walk. I'm telling you I've never seen anything like it," he said.

"I've been in the industry for 26 years and I've never seen Labor supporters ready to pack up and walk. They're not going to forget."

Mr McNeill believes the issue will cost Mr Iemma his leadership.

And here's how 2GB LiveNews reported it:

NSW Premier Morris Iemma has told state Labor officials his door remains open for negotiation over his proposed electricity sell-off.

Mr Iemma arrived at NSW ALP headquarters in Sydney about 9.30am (AEST) today ahead of his scheduled 11am meeting with the party's administrative committee.

The committee had requested Mr Iemma attend to explain his actions in defying the party, which had overwhelmingly rejected Mr Iemma's electricity sell-off plans.

The premier left the meeting just before 1.30pm saying discussions had been frank and he'd stressed he was still willing to negotiate on the matter.

"The government didn't end discussions. We didn't close the door. The door is open for further discussions," Mr Iemma told reporters.

"Their (alternative proposals) have obviously got to meet the objectives of the state and that's to secure our supply."

While speaking to the media, Mr Iemma was drowned out by an anti-privatisation protester, who claimed the premier was a "sell-out".

About 10 protesters also flanked Mr Iemma with anti-privatisation placards which read "Power Sell Offs You Will Pay More".

Mr Iemma said that during discussions he outlined the government's package and the reasons for the sell-off.

The NSW government claims it will save $15 billion under its plan to lease out its power stations and sell all but the poles and wires assets of Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy.