House of Assembly Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Water Pricing WATER PRICING Mr HAMILTON-SMITH House of Assembly Waite Leader of the Opposition WATER PRICING Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:59): My question is to the Premier. Will there be water bill increases above and beyond those already announced to fund the expansion of the desalination plant to 100 gigalitres (now estimated at $1.8 billion) and what will be the extent of the increase? The Hon. M.D. RANN House of Assembly Ramsay Premier Minister for Economic Development Minister for Social Inclusion Minister for the Arts Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change WATER PRICING The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (15:00): This has been made patently clear. On a series of occasions, we have spelt out the price path for water. I do not understand how the Leader of the Opposition could have missed this. Let us go through what has happened here: $1.8 billion will be spent; construction has already started. There does not need to be a new EIS, as I heard on radio today, because, in fact, the original EIS covered for a desal plant that was twice the size. That is why it was engineered to have outlets and piping that could cater for 100 gigalitres. What this does is make this state essentially secure for its water needs for decades to come. It guarantees our water security. It also means, by having 100 gigalitres rather than 50, that handles 50 per cent of Adelaide's water needs in a year. It makes us less dependent on the River Murray. Of course, it also makes us less dependent on rainfall. Whilst we are doing things in stormwater and whilst we are at 30 per cent of recycling—lifting it up to 46 per cent—it is really important to have a series of mechanisms in place, but this is totally independent of the rain because it comes out of the sea—and there is plenty out there. This means that we are less dependent on the River Murray, rainwater, stormwater or anything else. It means that we have a climate-independent source of water. The price path has been explained. We believe that it will mean the end of water restrictions in terms of the punitive water restrictions that we are seeing now, but the price path and a strong encouragement to conserve water will mean that we will see water savings—people will be using less water—but we will also be making sure that we have guaranteed water security for decades to come. Isn't it interesting that only the Liberal opposition in this state believes that we should not celebrate a massive injection of funds into public transport, health and in terms of guaranteeing water security for decades to come?