Keith Duncan, Pimlico
Most people must be becoming totally bemused at the record level of porkbarrelling the Berejiklian government is suddenly indulging in. It is a belated attempt to right so many wrongs caused by their insidious desire to sell off public assets and vicious cuts to so many necessary government services since coming to power in 2011.
Can we cap the euphoria for a moment, and consider just how this vast largesse has miraculously materialised? It has come from selling off the public assets owned by us; yes, the family jewels forever gone.
Since the coalition won government in 2011 they have sold: Country Energy, Energy Australia, Integral Energy, Sydney Desalination Plant, Port Botany, Port Kembla, Port of Newcastle, Bayswater and Liddell power stations, TransGrid, Ausgrid, Titling and Registry Office, Endeavor Energy.
The sad result of selling our electricity grid is the loss of at least 600 jobs in regional NSW with another 600 scheduled to go. As of July 2017 NCOSS reported that 77 per cent of low-income NSW households are going without heating in a bid to reduce their onerous power bills.
NSW electricity consumers experienced the biggest price rise in Australia with almost half of regional customers now suffering bill shock.
These are only the multi-billion-dollar sell-offs; there are many more like the complete gutting of our TAFE infrastructure. It makes all the current porkbarrelling reek of nothing more than rank opportunism.
