Power poles, most of us see them every day but don't give it further thought. When a car crashes into a power pole causing a blackout, like in Goonellabah two weeks ago, we get annoyed but know that Essential Energy will fix the problem and electricity will be restored quickly.

A little known fact is that 699 private landholders have been gifted power poles by Essential Energy that sit on their land since 2018, this is mostly rural residents and in some cases number 5 to 7 power poles depending on the length of the driveway from the main road. Routine inspections by Essential Energy have then informed 414 landholders of a fault with the power pole or line that needs fixing at their cost.

Local resident and businessman Andrew Purtle has experienced this circumstance first hand.

"I received a letter identifying the pole by number and was informed the crossbar needed replacing. They supplied a list of preferred contractors to use which I got three quotes and went with one that said it would be around the $3,000 mark," Andrew said.

"Well it ended up closer to $5,000 to get the crossbar replaced."

"Essential Energy have gifted these power poles to people that don't want them."

LISMORE MP Janelle Saffin has got involved in the case and has called on NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who leads the Nationals in Government, to reverse the NSW Government’s policy of ‘gifting’ private power poles to farmers and rural landholders.

Ms Saffin has moved a motion in Parliament condemning this unconscionable policy where the corporatised Essential Energy shifts the legal and cost burden of fixing faulty private poles and overhead lines to thousands of country people across NSW.

“How could Mr Barilaro, the self-appointed hero of the bush, and his fellow long-serving Nationals MPs on the North Coast, let this unfair policy slip through without a word of protest?” Ms Saffin asked.

“I can understand the Liberals sticking it to farmers and rural landholders, but where were the Nationals when their constituents needed them? Where are they now for that matter?”

Ms Saffin steps up her campaign against the policy as more outraged landholders are coming to her after being notified that they are the proud owners of one or more power poles and face maintenance costs of up to $7000 per pole to make them safe.

Ms Saffin said it was a case of the Government blindsiding country people who for decades had never had a clue that they owned power poles because Essential Energy and their forerunners had always taken care of maintenance of this essential public infrastructure.

“Sometime in 2018, the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government slowly and stealthily started to ‘gift’ these poles to the people,” Ms Saffin said.

“This Government did not make a major policy announcement, nor did it consult with the public as far as I can tell.

“Coalition MPs, including those long-standing ones here on the North Coast, appear to have let it go through without a murmur.

“And then bang, people woke up to the rude shock of PP signs on their power poles and wondered what it all meant.”

Ms Saffin said she had kept on file a January 2015 letter from then NSW Minister for the North Coast Duncan Gay MLC boasting that the Nationals had negotiated to keep Essential Energy (the regional part of our electricity network) 100 per cent publicly owned.

“Where does this policy of ‘gifting’ power poles – i.e. shedding legal responsibility and maintenance costs from the public purse to people’s back pockets – leave the Nationals’ commitment?,” she asked.

“I think it leaves it in tatters, all credibility shot to pieces.”