SA WATER

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:53): My question again is to the Minister for Water and the River Murray. Will the minister explain to the house why the Victorian government was able to carry forward water consumers' funds paid towards their desalination plant when works were delayed and, indeed, deferred planned Victorian water price rises but, in South Australia, Treasury took $125 million from SA Water, money which would have been paid to the contractors but for the delays in the construction, forcing SA Water to once again raise this money from long-suffering water consumers?

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:54): Comparisons made with the way Victorians do things and what occurs here in South Australia do not provide an accurate comparison.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: What I do know is that, built into the prices this year in Victoria, as I understand it, was a component for the desalination plant. That was then withdrawn. Of course, their contractual arrangements are different from ours and they had prematurely introduced those increases outside of the arrangements. What I can say about the Victorian situation is that, whilst they returned that money to consumers for the inappropriate way by which they secured that money from the Victorian public, they kept what was the component of the dividend and never bothered to return that. In essence, we have entirely different arrangements. Theirs is a PPP. It is not a fair comparison. I would place our contractual arrangements and the work we have done in South Australia against what the Victorians have done any time of the day as being a much better deal for our state.