Councillor Chris Harris

On 10th March 2008 I presented a motion to Council calling for Council’s support of the community campaign to stop the sell off of the state’s electricity system.  My motion was not supported by Labor, Liberal or Clover Moore Party councillors.

The sell-off is not a done deal and the campaign to keep power in public hands is still being waged.

Privatising electricity will lead to higher power bills, lower levels of service and increased greenhouse gas emission. If Treasurer, Michael Costa, gets his way and the electricity system is sold off to the highest bidder, the people of  Sydney will end up worse off.

Privatising essential public utilities like electricity and water leads to increased prices and reduced services as the new private owners try to maximise their returns. We have seen this happen with past privatisations from the Commonwealth Bank to Telstra to Sydney Airport.

Private owners will try to increase power consumption to maximise profits, the exact opposite of what we should be trying to achieve. Increased consumption of electricity will lead to potential blackouts and will increase greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to dangerous climate change.

The Greens think that it is the role of government to show leadership by dealing with global warming and climate change. Electricity generation by burning coal is the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. The state government should be looking at phasing out the burning of coal and replacing it with renewable energy alternatives. Reliable technologies such as solar thermal and wind already exist and are being employed in other countries as a replacement for the burning of coal, gas and oil. The Greens are very concerned that the government will offer guarantees to any purchaser of the power stations and that the move away from coal will be much more difficult as a result of those guarantees.

Think about it logically - would you hand over billions of dollars for a bunch of power stations when you were unsure of their future viability? You would want an assurance that government would not do anything that would lessen the value of those power generators. That’s why power generation should remain in public hands - so that the government wll be free to make whatever decisions that it needs to when considering the future of energy in a low emission environment.

Many residents of the city of Sydney are doing their bit to battle climate change by installing solar power and recycling water but the challenge can’t be met by individual households alone. The state government should be taking the lead on climate change, not sending us backwards.

 A copy of my motion appears below:

1. The City of Sydney opposes in the strongest terms the NSW Government’s plans to privatise NSW’s publicly-owned electricity retailers and enter into long term leases of the state’s generators.
 
Privatisation would:
•         weaken the ability of the people of NSW to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urgently respond to climate change,
•         result in job losses and reduce working conditions in the electricity industry,
•         increase financial hardship for consumers, and in particular for low income households and pensioners,
•         reduce state revenues by at least $1 billion per annum, as profits are shifted from the public purse to private corporations and
•         destroy public control over essential energy assets. 

2. Council also believes that privatisation would impact severely on local government as major electricity consumers.
3. Council calls on the NSW Government to better manage NSW’s future energy needs and take urgent action in response to climate change by investing in energy efficiency in homes and businesses and increasing its renewable energy targets.
4. The General Manager urgently convey this motion to the NSW Premier Morris Iemma and Treasurer Michael Costa; the NSW Local Government Association, all City of Sydney based MPs and MLCs, Unions NSW and the Total Environment Centre.
5. The reasons for Council opposing the sell-off are to be widely advertised including in local newspapers, on the Council website and by media release. 

In these times of climate change we need to be aware of, and be protective of our environment, but some of our leaders still don’t seem to get it.
 
Greens Cr Chris Harris said: “The Lord Mayor Clover Moore has now become Premier Iemma’s cheerleader. Instead of working to protect the city’s environment here she is cheering on the use of public space and Sydney’s beautiful harbour to accomodate a “Grand Prix” between 26 fossil-fuel guzzling power boats screaming around at 250km as they spew out tonnes of greenhouse gases.
 
“In the process, these power boats will be destroying the habitat of the undersea life, distressing pregnant whales seeking refuge in our harbour, disrupting anyone else who wants to use the harbour, inflicting ear splitting decibels upon local residents who may not want to experience this environmental catastrophe and, costing Sydney hundreds of thousands  of dollars to provide services such as toilets, security and the clean up afterwards. And for what? To provide cheap thrills to a bunch of aquatic rev-heads.
 
“And what a backflip.  Wasn’t it only recently that the Lord Mayor closed Sydney streets, particularly in Millers Point which has been locked up for months, to prevent motor rev-heads from hooning around?  And these terra firma racers weren’t doing anywhere near 250km per hour.

“It is interesting that the Lord Mayor slams hooning on our streets but is happy to cheer on the Premier as he encourages hooning on the harbour.”  Cr Harris said.

See story SMH 7th March 2008 ” Loos with a view, thanks to Iemma”

Greens Councillor Chris Harris has nominated the City of Sydney Council for a positive award at the Greens Bad Development Awards. The Awards, run by Greens MP Sylvia Hale, target bad developments and councils, but also have categories which recognise good developments and initiatives.

The City of Sydney has 15 water harvesting and recycling systems already installed with another 34 underway, and Councillor Harris, an often outspoken critic of bad developments and the lack of sustainable initiatives, is impressed by the positive steps the Council is taking on water.

“I’m usually the dissenting voice on developments and issues that do nothing to help make this city sustainable, so it’s good to be able to promote initiatives that will help the city reduce its reliance on mains water and the volume of stormwater discharged into our waterways,” Councillor Harris said. Read the rest of this entry »