FORMER Labor premier Bob Carr told students at a university Labor Club function this week he should have been allowed to privatise the electricity networks in 1997 and the Labor Party had not been “proven right” in blocking him.

Mr Carr also told students privately that if the Baird government was re-elected, Labor should pass the Coalition’s partial privatisation.

The leaked private comments are a blow to the anti-privatisation campaign of the state Opposition leader Luke Foley.

Mr Carr refused to comment on the issue at Labor’s election campaign launch in Campbelltown last Sunday.

When asked if he supported power privatisation, he said: “The party has one leader, one leader only for this day” and “you’ll have to rest with that answer”. But Mr Carr confirmed yesterday he had said that he should have been ­allowed to move ahead with privatisation saying: “I have said that a dozen times, go through your record.”

I DIDN’T MEAN TO FOLLOW HIM HOME: KELSALL

SHE WAS DEAD ON THE FLOOR OF THE BATHROOM

But he denied saying Labor should pass the legislation through the upper house, saying: “No, I didn’t say that. That’s a misunderstanding.

“What I said is Labor would be bound by its election commitments and, as I understand it, Labor would be committed to oppose it. If they give a commitment they’re going to block it, they’ll be bound by that commitment.”

media_camera The NSW State election debate contenders Mike Baird and Luke Foley.

The Saturday Telegraph has been told of private discussions Mr Carr had with students at the function, held on Tuesday at the Club Bar at the roundhouse at the University of NSW. Mr Carr is said to have used words to the effect of: “The party blocked me in ’97. I don’t think they’ve been proven right.”

Mr Carr is said to have said Labor was now “locked into” the anti-privatisation position and the issue would be if they did not win the election, whether it should block the government in the upper house. Mr Carr said he would argue it should be allowed to go through, one source said.

Mr Carr and former treasurer Michael Egan dumped a $25 billion plan to sell the electricity industry in 1997 after they were defeated at the Labor state conference.

It followed the successful sale of the Victorian power networks by former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.

Incumbent NSW Premier Mike Baird plans to lease 49 per cent of the transmission and distribution assets to raise $20 billion for infrastructure.

Melanoma on the run as science makes great strides

By Miles Godfrey

WHEN Kate Casey was diagnosed with advanced melanoma early last year her prognosis was unremittingly grim.

The outlook for people with stage-four melanoma is generally poor — very few survive.

About 30 Australians a day are diagnosed with melanoma and 1200 die from the disease each year.

Ms Casey, an IT project manager from Sydney’s northern beaches, had numerous tumours on her body and face, underwent chemotherapy and got her affairs in order.

media_camera Premier Mike Baird and Catherine Casey who is in a PD-1 trial that the Melanoma Institute Australia. Picture: Bradley Hunter

But after undergoing trials of a new drug which targets a cell protein called PD-1, her melanoma went into remission. Her tumours shrank. Her strength returned. She gained weight and this week the South African-born 57-year-old returned to work after 12 months.

“The results were just absolutely amazing — miraculous. I have my life back,” Ms Casey said.

The drugs trial, which involves patients being given the substance Pembrolizumab once every three weeks, worked for Ms Casey. Its wider benefits remain unclear and it is not yet approved for broader use.

But Ms Casey, whose treatment was funded by the Melanoma Institute through last year’s Melanoma Marches campaign, met Premier Mike Baird this week to highlight the importance of the drug’s trials.

“The Premier was interested and I could see he understood what it was all about,” she said.

The Melanoma Marches campaign that funded Ms Casey’s treatment are being held again throughout 2015 with the aim of raising $1 million for a world-first trial of a treatment for advanced melanoma tumours that have spread to the brain.

The Sydney march takes place at Manly on March 22 and involves walking a four kilometre loop around the beachside suburb.

Five other events will be held the same day in Bathurst, Bonny Hills, Gosford, Picton and Wagga Wagga. To register to walk or sponsor a walker visit melanomamarch.com.au.

Foley draws on Queensland Labor victory

By Alicia Wood

NSW Premier Mike Baird may be facing Luke Foley in the March 28 poll, but it was Campbell Newman’s conqueror who loomed large at the Labor leader’s north coast campaign launch.

Queensland’s new Premier ­Annastacia Palaszczuk launched Mr Foley’s north coast campaign, telling NSW Labor to ­“ignore those who say you can’t win, ­because I’m here to tell you it can be done”. “I’m living proof the pessimists got it wrong,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

media_camera NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at the NSW Labour Campaign Launch at Banora Point in Northern NSW. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Mr Foley sweetened the deal for north coast voters, promising a $211 million redevelopment for Tweed Hospital, $90 million for the redevelopment of Lismore Hospital, $7.3 million for a new operating theatre and emergency department at Ballina Hospital, and said he would reserve $7 million for an upgrade to Grafton Base Hospital.

He also committed to permanently banning coal seam gas mining in the Northern Rivers — a notoriously anti-CGS belt.

With their proximity to Queensland, and the strong anti-CSG sentiment in the region, seats like Ballina, Tweed and Lismore look like a chance for Labor, despite having margins of more than 20 per cent.

On Thursday he acknowledged most of the CSG licenses in the region were issued by the former Labor government. But in his key speech of the visit, he said the party had changed its position on CSG mining.