WATER BILLING

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Water Security. How many—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Attorney-General will come to order.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: How many water bills were raised in the calendar months March, April, May and June 2008, was the pattern of bill posting different from previous years and were SA Water bills withheld until this financial year to take advantage of the higher prices and retrospective charges linked to the government's three-tiered water billing system? With your leave, sir, I will explain—as I look at the galah, the member for Mount Gambier.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Sorry, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Leader of the Opposition! The minister will be quiet. The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw the remark.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Thank you, sir. With your leave, I will explain. Because of the—

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader! I have not heard you withdraw. Do you withdraw?

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Sorry. I withdraw the word 'galah' and apologise profusely. Because of the seriousness of this question and the need to ensure that it is answered today, the opposition gave notice to the minister at 10.30 this morning that I would be asking it today.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, Minister Assisting the Minister for Industry and Trade) (14:33): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question on notice. I can provide some information that I have received today from SA Water. SA Water advises that it did not withhold bills due to be issued during June so they could be issued in July. SA Water also advises that bills issued in June 2008, which included water consumption charges, covered water meter reading periods that commenced prior to 5 December 2007 when the new charges were gazetted. Under the Waterworks Act, such consumption was charged on the basis of prices that had been gazetted in December 2006.

The information that was sought by the leader was the number of bills that were raised in March, April, May and June. I will give the two-year comparison so we can demonstrate the pattern. In March 2006-07 101,547 bills were issued; in 2007-08 there were 103,534 bills. In April 2006-07, 275,151 bills were issued, I am advised by SA Water; and in 2007-08, 335,415 bills were issued. In May, there were 321,064 bills. In May 2007-08, 269,950 bills were issued. In June 2006-07, 102,088 bills were issued; and in June 2007-08, there were 102,765 bills.

I have also been advised by SA Water that the same pattern has occurred over the last two financial years. The last two weeks of the month at the end of each quarter have no scheduled billing, resulting in lower numbers for those months—for example, September, December, March and June—and in each month some accounts are billed with the access charge, water use and sewerage, whereas some other accounts are billed with only the access charge and sewerage because the water is billed biannually.

There is a variation in numbers from one month to another, in some instances. If you look at the entire year, for example, in October 2006-07, 274,883 bills were issued, whereas in 2007-08, 334,707 bills were issued. SA Water advises that this is due to the number of weeks in those months in any given year.