WATER BILLING

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Water Security. When did work commence in her department and within SA Water on plans to implement quarterly meter readings and quarterly water use billing, and when and by whom was the minister first briefed on such plans? Plans for more efficient billing and meter readings are canvassed in the Essential Services Commission Review of Annual Water Pricing Statements in both 2006 and 2007. In the 2005-06 transparency statement, an amount of $19.3 million is allocated for a major upgrade of SA Water's computerised customer information and billing system, but only yesterday on the radio the Treasurer said:

What I am doing is I've instructed SA Water yesterday and the minister to give us a quarterly billing system as soon as physically possible and that will take a few months to implement.

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) (14:55): I answered this question in answer to an earlier question today, where I referred to an overall review of the Waterworks Act 1932 that is currently being undertaken. On Monday we instructed SA Water to pull out the components that relate to the quarterly billing and to fast track that.