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In a recent article (February 25), Ms Pru Goward made some assumptions about the Yass community which I feel should not be left unchallenged.
Ms Gowards assertion that, "There would barely be a household in Australia that doesn't own a Telstra share", suggests a curious lack of understanding about the financial affairs of her constituency. This constituency remains overwhelmingly opposed to selling the electricity assets they own to unknown overseas interests.
Most of the working women and men I am familiar with in Yass don't have large share portfolios that include Telstra shares. Many are members of superannuation funds but have no say in the investment strategy of the top end of town. Most people on the aged pension, disability pension or who are paying off a mortgage are concentrating on getting by week-to-week.
Ms Goward then cites the float of Telstra and Commonwealth Bank as examples of successful and popular privatisations of public assets. There is an important difference. The Telstra and Commonwealth were open to all Australians. The sale of the state's poles and wires (via a complicated 99-year lease) will deny Australians any chance of becoming a shareholder. Instead TransGrid, Endeavour Energy and AusGrid will be sold off to either a Canadian super fund, a Singapore power company or possible a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
It strikes me as passing strange that Ms Goward, who is Liberal, advocates the sale of vital assets that are currently owned by the people of New South Wales to another county (which in one case is still run by the Communist Party).
Currently, the profits of TransGrid, Endeavour Energy and AusGrid are spent on schools and hospitals in New South Wales. Under the proposed sale/leaseback all the profits will now go to Singapore, Quebec or Beijing.
Perhaps worst of all in her support of the sale of our electricty assets to the above countries, Ms Goward seems to overlook the fact there are 80-odd electrical workers and their families who are now fearful for their jobs and their future in the town.
