A Maitland Greens campaign against a privatised electricity industry culminated yesterday with a last-minute appeal to Maitland MP Frank Terenzini to vote against it.

Members collected 3000 signatures opposing the sell-off in the city centre in nine months, part of a region-wide demonstration that included union action.

But The Greens upped their campaign in recent weeks, asking people to sign letters to Mr Terenzini ahead of the introduction of the legislation to parliament today. The Maitland member supports Premier Morris Iemma’s proposal.

Maitland Greens convenor and east ward candidate Jan Davis and the party’s mayoral candidate John Brown delivered 50 letters that called for Mr Terenzini to change his mind and reject privatisation and any new coal-fired power stations.

“This is our last chance before the vote and we really don’t know how that vote is going to go,” Ms Davis said.

“Mr Terenzini has said to us that he wants the privatisation to go ahead.

“Our message is that he should heed the lesson of the sale of other public assets.

“The government will make a short term gain; but in the long run when services fail, when the private sector can’t make a profit, taxpayers’ money will have to buy it back again.”

Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore signed a Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) petition opposing the plan in the Hunter Mall last week. He said the city had experienced a number of blackouts in the past month and there was no guarantee about the continuity of service under privatisation.

“The government went to an election last year and as far as I’m concerned they didn’t have a mandate for it,” he said yesterday. “There’s not enough public information available to residents as to the benefits, or the disadvantages, of privatisation.”