NSW: Electricity bosses' salaries are hush money: Opposition

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-2003
NSW: Electricity bosses' salaries are hush money: Opposition

By Alex Wilson

SYDNEY, Dec 29 AAP - The NSW government is paying public sector electricity bosses
"hush money" to stop them exposing underfunding in the sector, the NSW Opposition said
today.

But the government dismissed the accusation as "absurd".

The chief executives of state-owned electricity companies have had pay increases of
up to $60,000 this year, making them the highest paid in the NSW public sector, it was
confirmed today.

Paul Broad of Energy Australia was the highest paid with an annual salary of more than
half a million dollars, followed closely by Integral Energy boss Richard Powis.

Deputy Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell accused the government of buying the executives'
silence on the lack of funding in the sector.

"These payments smack of hush money to these senior executives to keep quiet about
the hundreds of millions of dollars the state government is ripping out of the state energy
utilities to finance other areas of government," he told reporters.

The government's own Sustainable Energy Development Agency had warned that billions
of dollars of investment were needed to stop blackouts becoming commonplace, Mr O'Farrell
said.

"(But) we see the government pull tens of millions of dollars out of the electricity
agencies to support other areas of government and in exchange we see massive pay increases
for their chief executives - it's inappropriate," he added.

A spokesman for Energy and Utilities Minister Frank Sartor said the suggestion the
salaries were hush money was "absurd".

"The facts are that the salaries for these chief executives are set by the board, not
by the government," he said.

Chief executives had to be paid fair salaries if talented people were going to be retained
in the public sector, he said.

"These guys are operating in a competitive national market where their private sector
counterparts are on huge money," he added.

The government was committed to a large investment in the sector, the spokesman said,
and had allocated $6.5 billion to electricity infrastructure over the next five years.

AAP apw/kbw/tma/jlw

KEYWORD: ENERGY

2003 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.