UP to 40 local power workers launched their electoral campaign against Member for Port Macquarie Leslie Williams on Friday, as part of a state-wide effort to prevent the Nationals and Liberals from selling the publicly owned electricity network.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Held outside the Essential Energy depot in Boronia Street, they voted on a motion condemning Nationals MP Leslie Williams for supporting the partial privatisation of the electricity network.
Stop the Sell Off campaign organiser Ben Lister called on the community to support full public ownership of the electricity network, saying the NSW election on March 28 was a referendum on the Liberals and Nationals privatisation plan.
“In June last year, the National Party sold out the people of NSW when they voted to back Mike Baird’s electricity privatisation plan that also put the future of Essential Energy at dire risk,” Mr Lister said.
“Power workers in Port Macquarie know that the best outcome for their local community is a one hundred percent publicly owned electricity network that is run in the interest of consumers, rather than to deliver massive profits to a private owner."
Mr Lister said Port Macquarie was a community that was particularly at risk if the publicly owned network companies were privatised, with Essential Energy directly employing more than 1000 people in the area.
“The only way Leslie Williams can guarantee the future of Essential Energy is to give the people of Port Macquarie a commitment that she will cross the floor and vote against electricity privatisation plans, including any partial sale."