The cost-of-living crisis is worse in NSW because of sales of public assets and creation of private monopolies at ports, the state's treasurer says.
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Several privatisation contracts, including $6.8 billion deals to sell Sydney's Port Botany and the ports of Kembla and Newcastle, were published for the first time on Thursday.
The release came as a Treasury-commissioned analysis of the previous NSW government's ports privatisation revealed taxpayers would have to pay between $600 million to $4.3 billion to the owner of ports Botany and Kembla should Newcastle develop a competing container terminal.
Any payment would depend on when certain triggers were met.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who asked the port owners for consent to release the contracts, said the public had a right to know if they got a good deal.
"For more than 10 years, the public has seen every day the pain these contracts led to," he told parliament.
"In NSW, the cost-of-living crisis is worse because of the decade of privatisation."
Publication of the contracts prompted the NSW Minerals Council to urge changes to "unregulated monopoly" in Newcastle amid a five-fold increase in some port fees in the past decade.
Wharfage charges for coal exporters will be three times higher than similar charges at comparable Queensland coal-loading ports from April.
"Changes are needed to ensure the Port of Newcastle is subject to regulatory oversight in relation to the charges it imposes on its users now, and in the future," the minerals council said.
The owners of the Port of Newcastle have long signalled a desire to diversify away from coal loading and expand its tiny container market - a move supported by local farmers and businesses.
The competition watchdog, the ACCC, tried in vain to blow up the deals but lost a Federal Court appeal in early 2023.
A deal with the Port of Newcastle requires it to reimburse the state for any compensation paid to Botany and Kembla's owner, NSW Ports.
An independent pricing tribunal is due to soon announce what Newcastle should pay to extinguish that provision.
Opposition leader in the upper house Damien Tudehope said the coalition was happy for the public to see the documents, adding they also saw daily the roads, hospitals and schools those deals funded.
"I stand here proud of all the things that we delivered for the people of this state," he said, panning the treasurer's "stunt".
Australian Associated Press
