Electricity privatisation - an attack on workers, an attack on the climate.

Wenny Theresia and Tim Briedis

Iemma and Costa’s plans to privatise the state electricity industry constitutes a savage attack on both workers and the climate. Despite overwhelming public opposition (70% of people oppose electricity privatisation, despite a $380,000 advertising campaign) and a sustained response from unions and ALP branches, they have expressed determination to forge on with the plans.

Privatisation would be an unmitigated disaster for real action on climate change. The plan would mean handing control of NSW’s biggest source of domestic greenhouse pollution – coal-fired power – to profit-driven corporations.

A privately-owned electricity industry will be driven to sell more energy in order to increase profits. Helping consumers to reduce energy use will just get in the way of the corporate bottom line. NSW’s coal-fired power stations already emit more than 55 million tones of CO2 each year and comprise over 35% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Privatisation will see emissions soar, further provoking dangerous levels of climate change.

The prime argument for privatisation is to attract private investment in the construction of a new base-load coal-fired power station for NSW. This ignores the reality that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the face of dangerous climate change. This also neglects the fact that reducing energy demand will not only erase the need for more power stations, but that this is also necessary in the face of climate change. It is only the will of the NSW government that is delaying the implementation of demand-reduction measures like phasing out off-peak hot water systems.

Public ownership is essential for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and shift to renewable energy. Environmentalists also recognise that  privatisation is a clear attack on everyday workers.

Electricity prices will almost certainly increase to feed corporate profit margins. Currently NSW has prices that are roughly 30% lower than Victoria and South Australia, which have privatised electricity industries. The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has already decided to raise prices for the next 3 years, in anticipation of a more expensive privatised market. Instead, we need to press for cheap, affordable electricity as a basic right.

Privatisation would be a further step away from the shift we need to renewable energy sources in the fight against climate change. Currently the Federal and State governments subsidise the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $9 billion/year, while renewables receive a fraction of this support. A privatised power industry will hardly move to invest in renewable energy when their profit margins are made up by maximum use of cheap, government-subsidised coal.

The experience of privatisation in Victoria has been the devastation of communities in areas like the LaTrobe valley region, where most of Victoria’s power stations are based. Job losses, homelessness, domestic violence and welfare rates have increased drastically.  A similar situation can be expected in NSW.

Transnational corporations are likely to take advantage of the situation. Giant retail energy suppliers AGL Energy and Origin Energy, which own energy assets in other states, have been arguing for years that NSW power facilities should be sold off. Due to their size, such corporations are exceptionally well placed to pressure governments and form energy cartels. They can then easily disregard employees, cut jobs and set high prices.

Building alliances

This context offers a huge amount of scope for tangible alliance building between environmentalists and union members and activists. Both the campaigns against WorkChoices and concerns about climate change were key reasons for the demise of the Howard government. Together, we can work against common foes both now and in the future. Environmental groups are keen to provide support, help mobilise numbers and provide solidarity with union campaigns and struggles.

The Green Bans: The BLF and the environment movement

Green bans were instances in which workers in the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) would ban certain projects on the grounds that they were socially or environmentally unworthy. A similar approach today  could be valuable.

How it happened last time …

The first environmental ‘green ban’ occurred in the upper middle class Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill. Kelly’s Bush was bought by the developer A V Jennings with the intention of building 25 luxury houses. This was one of the last areas of bush on the Parramatta River waterfront. The residents argued that the bush belonged to the neighbourhood and that it should be preserved rather than destroyed for the sake of exclusive housing. At this stage, the union movement had no record of environmental activism and some members saw it as a distraction. However, ecological ideas had begun to acquire prominence in the 1960s.  New ideas won support from the union’s membership.

The BLF applied the traditional black ban action, which was used to boycott building sites, and used it on the Kelly’s Bush site. They refused to work on any project at the site. When the developer threatened to get in non-union labour, the BLF held a meeting on a half-finished A V Jennings building site in North Sydney and proclaimed that if a single blade of grass were removed from Kelly’s bush, then the building would remain forever half-finished.

This set a precedent for further actions around Sydney. The largest one was imposed on The Rocks in Sydney. In 1972, the NSW government unveiled a plan for the redevelopment of the area, which involved demolishing a large amount of public housing occupied by working-class residents. This would make way for a $2 billion commercial skyscraper development. This development would destroy a community with a collective and cultural memory of over 160 years for the benefit of the privileged. A residents’ protest group turned to the BLF. Residents, the BLF and its allies in the union covering bulldozer drivers marched, piketed against non-union labourers and occupied buildings which were to be demolished. Many were arrested. The ban on The Rocks was ultimately successful.

Consequently, the BLF imposed a series of bans at the request of residents and community groups. These included actions on development at Centennial Park and on the construction of a car park under the Royal Botanic Gardens on Sydney’s waterfront.

While the Green Bans stopped in 1974 at the request of the BLF federal leadership, they remain an inspiring  example of interconnections between grassroots labour and environmental struggles.

The Just Transition Solution

It is clear that we need real action on climate change now. Climate justice demands that the voices of workers and communities on the frontlines – those most affected by policies under consideration – be heard.

Our dependence on fossil fuels comes at a high price to our environment, health, workers in unsustainable and polluting fossil fuel industries and coal-dependant communities like in the Hunter region. More than other parts of the population, Indigenous people, people of colour, rural and low-income communities are at disproportionate risk of suffering the impacts of climate change; from extreme weather patterns to the implementation of market measures like privatising electricity that will send the prices of electricity sky-rocketing.

Just switching to renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency is not enough. How the transition occurs is of equal importance. Climate change is a result of corporations putting profits before everything else and politicians making decisions based on their own interests. To achieve a sustainable and just energy future, we must address this pattern of exploitation, and compensate those who are most affected by climate change and new energy policies.

Just transition is about compensation and retraining for affected workers. It is about compensation for coal-dependant communities, such as cleaning up the costs of destructive mining, providing resources to deal with ongoing health effects of coal-fired power plants and pollution, and creating jobs in sustainable energy industries. Just transition is about meeting the needs of displaced communities and ensuring equitable access to electricity. It is about exploring the options inherent in renewable energy sources of decentralising energy supply and provision to break historical patterns of exploitation by centralised, profit-driven corporations. It is a process, principle and practice of listening to affected workers and communities to achieve a people-controlled shift to a sustainable and just economy and environment.