Water Pricing

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:57): Supplementary: did the government make its decision about which option to select in terms of the valuation of the regulated asset base on the basis of protecting budget revenue?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:57): All decisions are in the public interest and we do so to protect postage stamp pricing of water. Despite a lot of regional communities not electing Labor MPs, we still care about them very deeply. We care about them very deeply. We will not see the real price of water delivered to regional and remote communities being charged to them in the hope that they get a government concession to try to alleviate that cost. What we do is try to socialise those costs as much as we can to make sure that people in rural and regional communities do not pay more for water than people in metropolitan Adelaide by and large, and we do the very best that we can. Now, if members opposite want to change that, perhaps they can go back to their constituencies and ask them what they think.

Ms Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is warned a second and final time. Before I call the member for Unley, he was interjecting and criticising the Treasurer whom he alleged was reading his answer. I will be watching carefully the member for Unley's next contribution.