WATER BILLING

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is again to the Treasurer. If, as the Treasurer claims, he and other ministers had no idea of how the SA Water billing system worked, and decided only last week to change the system to a quarterly basis, why has the government, since July 2005, spent $19.3 million on a computerised customer information and billing system (known as CSIS) to deal with meter management, processing of bills and correct receipting and recovery?

The 2005-06 transparency statement states that the upgrade of the information and billing system would cost $19.3 million and was due for completion in the 2007-08 financial year before the recent water bills farrago.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:26): Maybe I could ask why you did not change the system for the eight years you were in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The transparency statements have indicated now for some time that we intend to move to a quarterly billing cycle, but that decision had not been taken. On Monday morning at nine o'clock, the minister and I took that decision and instructed SA Water to move rapidly to the quarterly billing system. What's the big deal?