NSW: Sydney's power supply an embarrassment - O'Farrell
28 Apr 2009 1:20 PM
SYDNEY, Apr 28 AAP - Sydney has been embarrassed again by a third-world power supply system, the NSW opposition says.
For the third time in less than a month parts of Sydney's CBD were without electricity on Tuesday after a cable fault on the city's main supply line.
Hundreds of office workers were evacuated, while others were stuck in lifts and 31 sets of traffic lights were blacked out.
At Circular Quay the 45-minute outage plunged the catwalk of Australian Fashion Week into darkness.
"Labor is presiding over a third world power supply for what's meant to be a world-class city," Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell told reporters.
Mr O'Farrell blamed the government's lack of investment in electricity infrastructure for the repeated supply failures.
"(Premier) Nathan Rees promised it wouldn't happen again," he said.
"It's continuing to happen. It's an embarrassment, particularly when international Fashion Week is in Sydney and Nathan Rees' proof is in the pudding - if you don't invest in electricity this is what you get.
"We know that black is the colour of the season but this is ridiculous."
Mr O'Farrell said Sydney businesses were already doing it tough without the added burden of power blackouts and agreed there might be legitimate cases for compensation.
When maintenance work was being undertaken on electricity infrastructure, business owners should be warned and advised to have backup facilities available, he said.
"That hasn't happened overnight and here we have another outage, another blackout across this city and no warning to the building owners.
"If people can prove economic hardship as a result of these blackouts, compensation ought to be payable, that's the system that's meant to apply."
