ARMIDALE ALP branch president, Tony Ramsay, has called on Northern Tablelands MP Richard Torbay to use his prerogative under Parliament’s Standing Orders to both speak and cast his vote against electricity privatisation when Parliament is recalled later this week.
Mr Ramsay said that, unlike Barry O’Farrell and his Liberal/National colleagues, ‘who continue to dither on this issue’, Mr Torbay is on the public record opposing electricity privatisation.
“Given his previous public comments, and given that 80 per cent of people in NSW are opposed to privatisation, we believe that Richard Torbay has a duty to use his independence and state clearly and categorically in Parliament that privatisation of electricity is not in the interests of the citizens of NSW.”
Mr Ramsay said a report from the Auditor General recommending privatisation should be dismissed as it was ‘too limited in scope and tells the Government want in wants to hear’.
Mr Ramsay believes privatisation should be opposed as plans to privatise were never put to the NSW public during the 2007 election.
“The NSW public, the owners of the electricity assets, have consistently and vigorously shown their opposition to the sale, and the NSW Labor Party conference voted 702 to 107 against privatisation,” he said.
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