But it won’t happen until at least September, after Premier Morris Iemma was forced to make a concession to the electricity reform package on Tuesday to gain opposition support.

Premier Iemma needed the opposition’s support for the privatisation legislation after it appeared it would be defeated in parliament by government MPs crossing the floor.

Mr Turner yesterday said the new package was one mainly developed by the National Party.

The concessions to the legislation include:

• Auditor-general report being carried out before the sale,

• A regional community impact statement completed, and

• A report on the impact on country jobs carried out.

“The package we may support was developed by us,” Mr Turner said.

“We want to know from the auditor-general’s report what the debt is from the generators we have at the moment is.”

Mr Turner said that debt could be anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion, which would affect the gross income from the power sell-off if the government had to pay that debt off.

“We want some answers before thinking about supporting the legislation,” he said.

Mr Turner said he was personally against selling off public utilities.

This was the same message he was getting from voters in the Orange electorate.

“But while I might be privately against the sale, I will vote along the party’s lines,” Mr Turner said, rejecting the idea of crossing the floor.

Mr Turner said Premier Iemma would have faced an “embarrassing defeat” if he had pushed forward with the current legislation.