NSW taxpayers are poised to see the nuts and bolts of the former government's major port and power privatisation deals in the Hunter and across the state.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has written to the chief executives of the privatised ports and electricity companies, including Port of Newcastle, telling them he intends to make public their sale contracts as he continues to rail against the former Coalition government's asset recycling.
Mr Mookhey has told Port of Newcastle and NSW Ports he plans to publish controversial port commitment deeds which require PoN to compensate the state government if it builds a large-scale container terminal to rival NSW Ports' freight operations at Botany and Kembla.
The Newcastle Herald understands Mr Mookhey needs the port companies' approval to publish the documents under the terms of their sale contracts but may have other avenues available to make them public if the CEOs refuse.
The Herald revealed the per-container compensation payments in 2016, but the full deed documents have never been made public.
"The people of NSW deserve to know exactly what is in the agreements made when public assets were privatised," Mr Mookhey said.
"This will provide an opportunity for NSW citizens, for the first time, to be able to access important documents that set out what the state's existing assets, rights and liabilities are from past privatisations.
"People should not have to wait until next century to learn what has been agreed to. The previous government should have revealed these details earlier."
Mr Mookhey has also written to the Ausgrid, Transgrid and Endeavour electricity networks and the new owners of Liddell, Bayswater, Colongra, Eraring, Shoalhaven, Mt Piper and Vales Point power stations.
Mr Mookhey said he would table the documents in Parliament subject to consent where required.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission unsuccessfully challenged the Newcastle port compensation payments as "illegal and anti-competitive" in a Federal Court case which concluded in 2021.
The full bench of the Federal Court rejected an ACCC appeal in February.
IPART review
State Parliament passed legislation in November last year which would allow Port of Newcastle to make a one-off compensation payment to the government to extinguish the ongoing container handling payments.
Former Treasurer Matt Kean appointed the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to assess the amount of compensation Port of Newcastle must pay.
IPART is due to report back to the Treasurer by March 2 next year after being granted a six-month extension for the review.
Publishing the port commitment deeds may not shed much more light on the privatisation of Botany and Kembla in 2013 and Newcastle the following year, but Mr Mookhey said it would satisfy his promise to make the deals more transparent.
Parliament approved the Newcastle port sale in 2014 without knowing about the container penalties.
As shadow treasurer, Mr Mookhey moved an unsuccessful amendment to last year's Port of Newcastle legislation seeking to "lift the veil of secrecy [the government] has thrown over the deeds and publish them within seven days of the commencement of the Act".
"To be clear, the Opposition says that the deeds for the Port of Newcastle, Port Botany and Port Kembla should be public because the public has a right to know exactly what the Government has signed us up for," he told Parliament at the time.
"There is much conjecture about what is in the deeds and the exact magnitude of compensation that might be payable to Port Botany and to what extent that is recoverable from the Port of Newcastle ....
"The people of the Hunter want to know exactly what happened to their port, what exactly are the powers and prerogatives of its private owners and whether they will be hurdles or aid and accelerate the development of a container terminal."
