Premier Gladys looks after her mates

Well, the cat's well and truly out of the bag. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian didn't want to offend any of her mates sitting on her side of the parliament so she decided to give every Coalition MP a salary increase.

That's enough to suggest a young Gladys always invited every student in her class at school to her birthday parties. That way no one was left off the invitation list so no one could possibly get offended. And, it also just happened to mean more birthday presents for young Gladys.

Fast forward to 2019. Every Coalition MP will have Gladys on their Christmas card list and she can expect to be on the receiving end of heaps and heaps of Chrissie presents.

Wednesday's Sydney Morning Herald's front page said it all.

"NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is rewarding every Coalition MP with promotions that deliver salary increases of between $10,000 and $110,000 a year on top of their base wage.

Seven fewer Coalition MPs in Parliament after the last election means the Premier has appointed all 65 Coalition MPs as ministers, parliamentary secretaries, committee chairs or to other parliamentary roles. They will all receive position payments and expense allowances for these roles on top of their $165,000 base salary.

Fifteen backbenchers, including eight new MPs, will each lead a parliamentary committee given the task of reviewing proposed laws and scrutinising public sector performance, earning them up to an extra $20,600 a year.

The Nationals MP for Coffs Harbour , Gurmesh Singh, is one of the new MPs and has been appointed chair of the healthcare complaints commission committee.

Mr Singh said there was a “steep learning curve” in Parliament but promised to give his all to the committee , which has in the past reviewed complaints against medical practitioners, the cosmetic health service and unregistered doctors.

“Health hasn’t been an area of specialty of mine, but obviously I’ll throw 100 per cent of my effort behind it,” he said.

...

 

Interim opposition leader Penny Sharpe said the government’s move to hand additional pay to every MP while making cuts to the public service was paradoxical. “While workers in NSW are suffering from record low wage growth, insecure work and the loss of jobs, the arrogance of the Premier to doll [sic] out sneaky pay rises to her MPs is shameful,” she said. 

After her March election victory, Ms Berejiklian increased the number of ministers and parliamentary secretaries . She appointed 18 MPs parliamentary secretaries , who each receive at least an additional $21,000 each year. At the same time, she expanded her ministry by one to 24 members.

Ministers earn an extra $94,000 to $110,000 in salary and can claim up to $42,000 in expenses . The most a senior minister can earn including expenses is $318,000 per year.

Another eight Coalition MPs earn above their base salaries for parliamentary roles, which occur in every government, including the speaker ($94,000 extra), whips ($21,000) and their deputies.

...

During the election campaign, Ms Berejiklian attacked a proposal by Labor to scrap the public sector wage cap – which freezes pay rises for over 390,000 public servants at 2.5 per cent – calling it a ‘‘ pay rise for middle managers’ ’ and ‘‘ economic vandalism’’ . Following the election, the Department of Premier and Cabinet forked out $2.3 million on redundancy payouts for 69 political staffers who did not continue on in the new government, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws. A government spokesman said that every Coalition MP was “working hard for their community and for the entire state” and called the Labor Party “lazy” . “While the Liberals and Nationals government is working hard to deliver unprecedented investment in schools and hospitals, Labor has been leaderless for 93 days – all because they put the interests of Bill Shorten ahead of NSW,” the spokesman said."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, pages 1 and 10

Is NSW Premier Baird trying to hide the Chinese connection in his electricity network privatisation plans?

The Sydney Morning Herald 26 March 2015:

A Chinese government-owned energy company that is a potential buyer of NSW electricity assets, State Grid Corp, was the subject of a "major" state audit last year which uncovered allegations of corruption amounting to more than $1 billion.

As Premier Mike Baird on Wednesday was asked more questions about the company and its dealings with the NSW government it has emerged that State Grid Corp's president, Liu Zhenya, was named as a key focus of the probe.

Mr Baird's office confirmed that a State Grid Corp executive, Shu Yinbiao, was one of those present at a business roundtable addressed by Mr Baird during his trip to China in September, not its president Mr Liu as previously advised……

However, the Wall Street Journal said in June the audit, which also involved another state-owned electricity company, China Southern Power Grid Company, focused on contracts for a west-to-east electricity transmission system.

The newspaper said China's national audit agency alleged that "more than $1 billion was misappropriated in less than four months [during 2013] in the construction and running of portions of a major electricity grid system".

Asked if Mr Baird knew about the revelations before his China visit, his office said it had "no further comment".

Fairfax Media can reveal that State Grid Corp's attendance at a roundtable addressed by Mr Baird was omitted from an official report on his trade trip to China last year.

Mr Baird on Wednesday repeatedly refused to detail meetings held during the trip to China last September, which aimed to drum up interest in NSW infrastructure projects.

The Coalition government's plan to partially lease the electricity "poles and wires" and spend the proceeds on infrastructure is the centrepiece of its re-election campaign…..

Under Mr Baird's reforms to political lobbying, ministers are required to publish details of external meetings.

But on Wednesday Mr Baird said the rules did not apply to trips abroad, saying "there's a different process for international trips, that's well established".

A spokesman for Mr Baird later said the Department of Premier and Cabinet had been advised that details of ministers' meetings on official overseas missions "should not be disclosed through the ministerial diary process as there is appropriate disclosure of such meetings through mission reports".

However the mission report from Mr Baird's China trip does not mention a meeting with State Grid Corp.

Asked later on Wednesday why the meeting was omitted, Mr Baird said he had complied with disclosure obligations for overseas trips.

At the news conference he declined to say who else was at the September roundtable meeting.

"I am not going to go into individual meetings. As Treasurer and Premier I met with hundreds if not thousands [of potential investors]. My job is to encourage investment into NSW," he said…..

NSW National Party must look after regional interests in proposed energy infrastructure sell-off, says Greens

Since Mike Baird became NSW Premier further privatisation of the state's energy infrastructure is back on the political agenda.

Recognising that they have been asleep at the wheel since the last state election and, realising that the next is less a year away, the North Coast Nationals woke and began to weakly posture for the voters' benefit.

This week the NSW Greens re-entered the fray:

Media Release Wednesday June 10

Wires and poles; the National Party must look after regional interests

Carol Vernon, Greens candidate in Oxley said:

"We await the results of today's cross party meeting between the Liberal party and their coalition partners, The Nationals.

"Will Premier Mike Baird and the Liberals convince the Nationals to go along with their plan to sell or lease the state owned wires and poles?

"Already Andrew Stoner seems convinced, however, some National Party members are holding out. Will their resolution fade under Liberal Party pressure, as it usually does?

John Kaye, Greens MP has said:

"Long term leasing of the poles and wires is privatisation by another name with the same impacts on household power bills, jobs and the state's economy.

"Either way, Premier Mike Baird wants to cash in the goose that lays the golden eggs.

"The wires and poles provide $1 billion in dividends and another $500 million in tax equivalent payments each year to the state.

Carol Vernon said:

"Premier Baird is being deceptive when he compares NSW electricity prices with other states that have not invested as much in infrastructure. He cannot validly argue that prices will fall with privatisation.

"This is just a ploy and we will soon pay more as private companies pursue their main goal, that is to make profits, even at the expense of infrastructure maintenance and quality services.

"Once again regional NSW energy users, especially local business, will pay more.

Received from secretary@mncg.nsw.greens.org.au.

NSW Premier Mike Baird telling fairytales regarding reasons for foreshadowed increases in gas prices

On ABC News online on 23 April 2014:

NSW Premier Mike Baird says around half of the proposed increase is due to the carbon tax.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) shows Premier Baird up as a political fairytale purveyor in its April 2014  draft report, where is clearly states that increases in network distribution charges to gas retailers and industry structural changes are the main drivers of cost to consumers increasing. With future gas exports from Australia’s east coast expected to increase costs even more.

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is only a small component of these charges as is made clear in the Jemena Access Arrangement.

Changes in regulated retail gas prices from 1 July 2014: Gas — Draft Report April 2014:

1.2 Reasons for these price increases

The allowed increases in regulated retail gas prices follow increases in prices in

2012/13 and 2013/14.⁸ The main reason for these past increases were sustained

rises in network costs.⁹

In the coming 2 years, the reasons for the increase are different. The main reason

relates to structural changes that are emerging in the wholesale gas market.

These changes are driving increases in wholesale gas prices, and so all 3 Standard

Retailers have wholesale gas costs that are significantly higher than in 2013/14.

However, we note there is still considerable uncertainty around how fast

wholesale gas prices will rise and what level they will peak at.¹⁰ This uncertainty

means there remains a wide range (and a high level of risk) in forecast efficient

wholesale gas costs, which we considered as part of our assessment of the

Standard Retailers’ proposed price changes.….

8 Average retail gas prices increased by 8.5% across NSW on 1 July 2013, or by between 5.2% and 9.2% in the Standard Retailers’ individual supply areas. Average retail gas prices increased by 14.2% across NSW on 1 July 2012, or by between 9.3% and 14.9% in the Standard Retailers’ individual supply areas.

9 Recent network cost increases have primarily been the result of Jemena’s successful appeal to the Australian Competition Tribunal (ACT) of the AER’s final decision on the maximum prices and charges they can levy on retailers for use of the distribution network. Information on the Jemena Access Arrangement can be found here.

10 Wholesale gas prices are likely to be influenced by the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities on the eastern coast of Australia and the subsequent export of LNG. This means that Australia’s domestic gas market will increasingly be influenced by the international market. However, there is still significant uncertainty around the impact this will have on gas prices in the domestic market.

Tables from IPART media release, 23 April 2014