Queenslands Katters Australian Party leader Robbie Katter (pictured) has called on the LNP Government not to sell our power assets despite Productivity Commission calls to privatise the energy industry.
I call on the Government to put Queenslanders minds at rest and commit now to no sale of our electricity assets, he said.
Already, and without a mandate, they have seen fit to sell the rest of QR National, allocate $500 million for their pleasure palace in the Brisbane CBD, and sack 14,000 public servants, but they are not willing to offer an opinion on whether or not they support further asset sales.
Our publicly-owned essential services are not there to be tampered with they are there for all Queenslanders all of the time!
This is a huge issue and if the Government does not categorically denounce any plans to sell off our power providers, then it is either being deceitful or showing a severe lack of leadership.
Anyone outside of Government understands this will inevitably lead to diminished level of services (particularly in regional areas), higher prices and a decline of the network standards.
Mr Katter said the Productivity Commissions recommendation that Queensland should privatise its energy network would put at risk the continuity and quality of power supplies.
If the power supplies were privately owned there would be less focus on maintenance and reliability of supplies, leading ultimately to power blackouts for consumers and businesses.
The Government cant walk away from its responsibility of making these entities operate more efficiently by simply flick passing on to private industry.
The real test for Government is to work on the efficiency of these entities, not to sell off just to balance a budget in the short term.