McGowan to seek power letter inquiry
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan says he will refer Colin Barnett to Parliament's powerful procedure and privileges committee over what he described as the Premier's "blatant lie" about the contents of a letter from the chairmen of Verve and Synergy.
The letter, from Verve chairman David Eiszele and Synergy chairman Michael Smith, was sent to the Premier on March 30 last year after Mr Barnett and his then energy minister Peter Collier said publicly they wanted to merge the electricity corporations.
Mr Barnett first referred to the letter at a press conference on April 10 when he made the surprise announcement that the Government intended to merge the corporations by January 1 next year.
"I guess one of the telling points came mid last year when the chairmen of Verve and Synergy wrote to me and said the two should be amalgamated. And I took that advice," Mr Barnett said.
He repeated the claim twice in Parliament on Wednesday during debate on the Government's merger Bill.
While Mr Eiszele and Mr Smith outlined their serious concerns about problems in the electricity sector - including that changes to the industry over 10 years had not been well managed - they did not advocate a merger and instead were seeking a meeting with Mr Barnett about the Government's merger plans because its key objectives were "not entirely clear to us".
Mr McGowan said Mr Barnett's conduct had been scandalous.
"This letter is a scandal because the Premier of WA - and I'm reluctant to use this term - lied to the people of WA and lied to the Parliament of this State … in order to justify legislation that no one else agrees with," he said.
"He lied in order to say that these laws were called for when no one has called for them."
The letter also warned the Government it could face compensation claims from private participants in the energy market if it merged the two corporations and urged the Government to conduct a full due diligence process.
Mr Barnett's office did not respond to questions about whether the Government had sought advice on the compensation issue.
On Thursday, Mr Barnett told The West Australian that though he took "licence" with the letter's contents, he had not misled Parliament.
"That letter states very clearly the electricity energy had been mismanaged and the changes had not worked," he said.
"Therefore I interpret there was broad support for a merger should the Government do it. There was no misunderstanding they (the chairmen) regarded that as an issue for Government."
