ALP icon Martin Ferguson rebukes John Robertson on power sale Former MP Martin Ferguson. FORMER federal Labor energy minister Martin Ferguson has urged the party to support Premier Mike Baird's electricity network privatisation push while also delivering a stinging rebuke to Opposition Leader John Robertson, who he said was stuck in the 1930s. The comments came as Mr Ferguson compared the proposed long-term lease of 49 per cent of the electricity assets to raise $20 billion for much-needed infrastructure to the reforms of the Hawke and Keating governments in selling off Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank. In a speech to be delivered at an Infrastructure Partnerships Australia lunch today, Mr Ferguson will call on Mr Robertson - an ardent opponent of the sale who he also compared to a 1930s Labor leader - to pass through the upper house the sale of the networks, should Mr Baird, as expected, win the election next March. He argues that the money is badly needed for transport ­infrastructure but that privatisation will also lower electricity prices. "I think it's (the sale) to the benefit of consumers and especially people in Western Sydney who Labor has (traditionally) represented," Mr Ferguson told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. The challenge to NSW at the moment is not maintaining public ownership of existing infrastructure, it's the requirement to create an ­investment pool for new ­infrastructure to overcome the (city's) traffic problems. The truth of the matter is John Robertson is a person who best represents Labor leaders of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, not the 21st century or the Hawke, Keating, Carr and Iemma legacy. Mr Ferguson conceded his views had changed since his time between 1984 and 1996 on the ACTU executive. "Premier Mike Baird is to be congratulated on his strength of leadership in seeking a mandate at the March 2015 NSW election to reform the electricity sector," he will say. And I call on John Robertson and the NSW Labor Party to turn this into a true referendum on ownership and to commit that if the Coalition is re-elected, it will allow enabling legislation through the parliament. "As a former federal minister for energy, as a former union official - and as a long-serving member of the Australian Labor Party - I am proud to stand before you today to lend my strong support to the restructure and sale of the NSW and Queensland electricity grids," Mr Ferguson will say. I cannot, in good ­conscience, stand idly by and see this final chance to fix the national electricity ­market pass this great ­country by. Make no mistake - the people who are harmed most by high electricity prices are vulnerable households. A stable, efficient electricity sector is the key to easing cost of living pressures for this section of the community. A recent analysis by Ernst & Young found that costs for the privatised network in the state of Victoria reduced by 18 per cent between 1996 and 2013," Mr Ferguson will say. By contrast - over the same period, costs in the NSW publicly-owned grid increased by 122 per cent. Mr Ferguson said he was "not alone" in the Labor Party in supporting market reforms in electricity pointing out former Labor premier and treasurer Bob Carr and Michael Egan and Morris Iemma all "attempted reform of this sector and were frustrated by the union movement." "Electricity reform should not be an issue of partisan debate - this is about the interests of the state of NSW," Mr Ferguson says. Originally published as ALP icon rebukes Robbo on power sale