The Baird Government's proposed sale of NSW's poles and wires could come down to one vote – that of Reverend Fred Nile from the Christian Democratic Party. And he is not sure how he feels about it.
The 34-year veteran of NSW politics expects to be re-elected and retain the balance of power in the upper house.
He says when the privatisation bill reaches the upper house he will move a motion to hold a parliamentary inquiry examining the impact of the sell-off.
There had been too many conflicting messages on prices and risks of foreign ownership from the two major parties, confusing everyone, including himself.
"I'll move the motion which the Greens, Labor and the Shooters will support. It will put the government on the spot, because it will be under oath. No more campaign slogans," he said, while handing out "Vote 1" Christian Democratic Party leaflets at Town Hall on election day.
The Liberal Party claims the sale will drive prices down, while Labor says prices will go up, squeezing households already struggling with budgets.
He urged the intelligence agency ASIO to publicly declare whether the ownership of NSW's transmission and distribution by interested buyer the Chinese government-run State Grid Corp would threaten national security.
"ASIO should say a yes or a no, and hopefully they will say there's no security threat if a Chinese company owns it," he said.
He has demanded a five-year job guarantee for electricity workers – which could reduce the value of the 99-year lease of the state's power transmission and distribution businesses.
He also criticised NSW Premier Mike Baird for dodging questions about whom he met on a trade trip to China last year and about why investment bank UBS deleted the words "Bad for the budget" from its report into the potential transaction.
"Under our rules for elected government leaders, they're always supposed to reveal who they've met with when they're discussing negotiations about possible takeovers, like poles and wires, and he didn't do that," he said.
"That was a very bad move. He may have gambled that no one would find out. These things are always found out."
The MLC also scotched media reports that Mr Baird was considering handing him the presidency of the Legislative Council, saying there was nothing on the table before or after the reports.
"I certainly don't want to have some proposition, appearing that if I'm offered the position then I'll do what the government wants," he said.
"It might look like a bribe. It can look like that, and I don't like it."
