SA Power Networks

Mr SZAKACS (Cheltenham) (15:52): I rise to speak of my own personal concerns regarding recent developments with respect to South Australia Power Networks and the potential acquisition of its 49 per cent owner, Spark Infrastructure, by foreign equity owners KKR.

Of course, none of this would be even discussed today, none of this would be even considered today if it were not for the privatisation of the Electricity Trust of South Australia back in 1998, some 23 years ago. You would think that this legacy would have shifted or changed, but it is with some confusion that I know that even the fiscal conservatives on those government benches see the Hon. Rob Lucas in the other place still occupying the treasury bench.

He has had a massively different approach to fiscal responsibility in this term of government, but back when he was the Treasurer in the late 1990s, at the cost of an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion a year for a decade and a half afterwards in lost state revenue, he sold ETSA. The Liberals sold ETSA. When I am doorknocking down in the western suburbs no-one forgets that. There are some things that are etched in the psyche of this state, and the sale of ETSA by the Liberal government at the time is absolutely etched in the western suburbs.

In the years since, SA Power Networks has been an admirable corporate citizen in South Australia. However, there have been reasons for the public to be concerned in recent years about what exactly the plans have been for the stripping of assets, the investing in infrastructure of this monopoly owner of assets and its core corporate responsibility to invest in its infrastructure.

When we learnt, a couple of weeks back now, that private equity company KKR, based out of Texas, had unanimous board approval to take over, at about $2.49 a share, the 49 per cent shareholder of SA Power Networks, Spark Infrastructure, we had reason to be worried. KKR Private Equity has a track record of coming in, stripping assets, devolving corporate structures and then flipping and selling. This is not dissimilar to many other private equity investors. It is a business model; it is what they do.

From top to bottom we are now hearing case studies of why the South Australian public should be incredibly concerned about the proposal, which will be a matter for federal decision-makers some time very soon. We already know that SA Power Networks is one of the most profitable entities for Spark and Cheung Kong (Holdings) anywhere across the globe. The hundreds of millions of dollars of profits every year because of the privatised sale of this asset, are quite remarkable—especially when you consider that you could not always accuse SA Power Networks of being a good corporate citizen or a good community provider.

Just in my two years in this place, I have had a couple of instances where SA Power Networks have been anything but leading by example. For example, in response to my advocacy on behalf of wheelchair and scooter mobility-limited residents in my local area, they let me know that they would not be willing to spend $5,000 on investigation of moving a light pole to enable scooters to get through to get to a bus. They have also shirked their responsibility when it comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars' damage to Findon residents because of failed transformer infrastructure that only SA Power Networks are responsible for.

To now learn that KKR are coming in, potentially to own 49 per cent of this company, with a track record of being anything but supportive of their workforce, anything but community minded, should send shivers down spines of all South Australians—and the Liberals are the ones to blame.

Time expired.