Premier Campbell Newman says he's yet to read the full Costello report on Queensland's finances. Source: AAP
PREMIER Campbell Newman isn't convinced that selling Queensland's electricity assets is a good idea, although he is yet to read the full Costello report on the state's finances.
The report recommends selling electricity and port assets to pay down debt.
Mr Newman says he has read the report's executive summary but isn't yet sure that selling the poles and wires of Queensland's electricity network is a good idea.
"I'm going to have to be convinced. This is a natural monopoly," he told parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Newman said he and Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney were yet to receive a copy of the final 1000-page audit report and that Treasurer Tim Nicholls was only 250 pages into it.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the report, which she estimated cost $2 million, had been touted as one of the most important the government had ever received.
"And yet no one has had the opportunity, the will or the desire to read it," she told parliament.
"Most novels are 1000 pages and I can get through that in a night or two."
Treasurer Tim Nicholls has promised not to sell assets without an election mandate.
But he's warned that Queenslanders have a difficult choice to make: sell assets or face massive tax and fee hikes.
Mr Newman said his government had to deal with the state's debt or basic services would suffer.
"What this actually means that in 10 or 20 years' time, we won't have a health system that delivers for you in the way you expect," he said.
"It means that the services that you have every right to believe that you are going to get ... it simply cannot happen if we continue to see the mess left unattended."
The Services Union fears jobs will be lost if electricity assets are sold and has urged Energy Minister Mark McArdle to guarantee no sell-off.
The Katter party says the government must use the proceeds of any electricity asset sales to offset the spiralling power bills low income households will face as a result of privatisation.
Meanwhile, the peak mining lobby group, the Queensland Resources Council, is demanding full consultation to avoid the kind of problems that followed the Beattie government's sale of Dalrymple Bay coal terminal in Mackay.
"We will want to understand planned protections against price gouging by a new owner," chief executive Michael Roche said.
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