Melburnians experience privatised power's emergency arrangements

And they are far from impressed.

On Wednesday last week Victoria was lashed by wild storms which left more than 200,000 customers without power.

Two days later, Friday, there were still 25,000 people without power (and still 10,500 on Saturday). Live wires were still lying across roads, etc.

By Friday it had become apparent that the private Victorian power companies had inadequate staff numbers to handle an emergency situation. They had cut their staff to the bone, and they had largely abandoned training of apprentices, an important source of emergency labour. Even with interstate reinforcements on Thursday it was still slow going..

Standard procedures have been changed - repairs were being done while wires were still alive. One electrician was killed while up a pole repairing wires.

And enquiry systems had been computerised so callers were getting shunted around the computer and when they did get a person they were getting wrong information. e.g. callers from a blacked out area being told there was no blackout there.

A check of the ABC news bulletins shows the misinformation was terrible - time and time again the electricity companies were reported as saying there were only a few hundred people to reconnect - they were saying that as early as Thursday when there were 25,000 to reconnect.

That's privatisation Victoria-style. If the NSW Government proposals are not stopped, that's what we will get here.