Here’s your Wednesday morning riddle.

If an investment fund owned by trade unions which oppose the privatisation of publicly owned assets buys some from a Labor government which was elected on the promise it would not sell off its energy assets, is it still privatisation?

Yeah, it’s a bugger, isn’t it?

And it appears to be one which the McGowan Government has shrugged off in privatising a clutch of taxpayer-owned renewable energy assets.

Readers might remember that in late January I questioned the Government’s honesty in announcing a deal in which Synergy was handing over potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of these assets to “a private sector investor”.

It didn’t disclose that Synergy’s Albany wind farms, the Greenough River solar project and all the existing value of its Warradarge project at Eneabba were to be 80 per cent owned by the Dutch Infrastructure Fund.

In the pantheon of left-wing sins, which is worse: foreign ownership or selling public assets?

And how bad a sin is it when Labor combines the two?

As I noted, premier Colin Barnett personally scuttled a similar deal with DIF put up to Cabinet by Synergy late in 2016.

So not only had Labor flunked another transparency test, but it failed to answer why it was a good deal now, but a bad one for the WA government two years ago.

It was obvious that parts of WA’s union movement would be furious about the Synergy deal, given they had campaigned for the election of the McGowan Government to stop the sale of energy assets, principally Western Power.

On Monday last week, union superannuation fund Cbus announced it was taking half of DIF’s interests in the new joint venture, now named Bright Energy Investments.

So that raised other questions. Was this done to take the internal political heat out of the DIF deal?

If I were a member of a union super fund, I would want it to be maximising the returns on my money, not indulging in political actions and providing cover for a Labor government.

“The deal will deliver strong, sustainable long-term returns for Cbus members as well as make a meaningful contribution to the West Australian economy, creating local jobs and supporting the development of sustainable power for the communities in which our members live,” Cbus chief executive David Atkin said.

“This sustainable long-term investment is a significant milestone for the fund’s new direct infrastructure investment strategy as well as our commitment to addressing climate change.”

No consideration of opportunity cost there.

It’s one thing for individual investors to make “ethical” choices, but quite another when it’s done in the name of 755,000 members, mostly construction and mining workers who might not care a fig about global warming.

A day later, the McGowan Government announced the Cbus deal, saying it would now be able to meet its 2020 renewable energy commitments “in such a way that has minimal impact on taxpayers and contributes to State Budget repair”.

So I asked Treasurer Ben Wyatt how Cbus came to be part of the deal when the original announcement last November made no mention of other investors.

“Cbus did not approach Synergy,” Wyatt said.

“The inclusion of Cbus as a funding partner was the result of negotiations between DIF and Cbus. Synergy is supportive of the equity partnership arrangement.

“DIF has always had the option to have an equity partner and they exercised that option separately to their interactions with Synergy.”

Question: Did the minister have any discussions with any unions about the DIF deal after it was announced?

Wyatt: “The minister has constant discussions with a broad range of stakeholders in the energy portfolio. Among them are the ETU (Electrical Trades Union) and ASU (Australian Services Union) both of which have spoken with the minister since the announcement of the Synergy Renewable Vehicle. The SRV has been one of a number of issues discussed.”

Question: Was Cbus the only new investor into the DIF deal considered by the Government after the initial announcement?

Wyatt: “The Government had no role in considering any investor.”

Question: Is the minister concerned that the new deal looks like a political fix by Labor’s union affiliates?

Wyatt: “No.”

I also asked Cbus how it got involved and was told it began active consideration of the deal in January.

“It is our role to be attuned to investment opportunities as they come to market and active in pursuit of those that meet our members’ investment objectives,” the fund said. “DIF and their professional advisers were the only bodies Cbus dealt with.”

So was it aware of the WA union opposition to the DIF deal?

“Our decision to make this investment, like all investments we make, was subject to the carrying out of due diligence. If a Government makes the decision to sell an asset, given our focus on responsible investment and that we are long-term investors, we offer a strong alignment as an investment partner.”

I’ll save the last word for the Use Your Power campaign, funded by the ASU and ETU, which poured hundreds of thousands of dollars of their members’ money into Labor’s election:

“The new State Government was elected on its commitment to keep WA’s electricity system in public hands. Unfortunately, some people in Western Power and Synergy didn’t get the memo. Let’s continue to work together to stop privatisation from wreaking havoc in WA. Let’s use our power to keep WA’s publicly owned electricity system in public hands.”

Maybe they should talk to their mates in the CFMEU, AMWU, CEPU and AWU about that. Because with union-backed privatisation, it appears it is possible to be just a little bit pregnant.