Water Pricing

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (15:01): Thank you, Mr Speaker.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr MURRAY: Sorry?

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr MURRAY: I'll then buy the Repat for you, how's that? My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister outline to the house this government's approach to setting the regulated asset base of SA Water and whether he is aware of any alternative approaches?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:02): I thank the member for Davenport, a strong advocate for his electorate and one of those electorates in the middle southern suburbs that will really benefit very substantially from the Marshall Liberal government's approach to resetting the way that water and sewerage prices are calculated here in South Australia. Properties like those found in Happy Valley, Aberfoyle Park and Flagstaff Hill, those middle Australia suburbs, are really going to have those reductions in their water pricing of $200, $300, $400 per annum, and that will make a great difference to the member for Davenport's constituents, I have no doubt.

The way that water pricing is set in South Australia is through the use of evaluation of what is known as the regulated asset base, or the RAB for short. It reflects the value of SA Water's assets—things like pipes, treatment plants, the desalination plants and all the things that work together to create an efficient and effective water utility. That regulated asset base is then taken into consideration as a key component used by the Treasurer of the day and then handed over to ESCOSA when calculating what water prices will be going forward.

From opposition, this party felt very strongly that the regulated asset base was being overinflated and that a figure that was too high was being handed to ESCOSA to feed into its pricing determinations. So we made a commitment, a commitment we followed through on, to get respected businessman Lew Owens to undertake an independent investigation, and that resulted in Mr Owens's investigation making a very clear, very decisive finding that in fact the previous Labor government had done what we suspected they had done: they had overinflated the price of the regulated asset base, which over many, many years had fed directly through into the tariffs being charged—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —to South Australian households and businesses, and year on year—

The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Primary Industries!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —it ripped hundreds and hundreds of dollars out of South Australian households and into the coffers of the government led by the South Australian Labor Party.

Just quoting a couple of quotes from the independent inquiry, which amongst other things said that, despite the Labor government claiming it was acting in the interests of consumers:

…that was not apparent and it appeared that the main driver of the decision was the securing of revenue for the Government.

The report also found that the process for setting the regulated asset base:

…was not transparent, balanced or credible: the decision was taken without proper public consultation or explanation, and there was no demonstrable effort to balance the interests of consumers against those of the Government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: That is a shameful record and we have to find out who knew about this.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Well, one person who knew a lot about this was actually the member for Lee, who at the time was the deputy chief of staff. It was found at a hearing of the Budget and Finance Committee that he actually asked the commission—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —to calculate how much could be raised for the government if you were to raise the RAB by 5 per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent. The member for Lee is someone who can never be trusted when it comes to cost-of-living issues in this state or water pricing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will be seated for one moment. The member for Lee.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The Hon. Michael Wright, member for Lee up until 2014, isn't here to defend himself. This is an outrageous attack on him.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister has made his point, and I caution him; he is beginning to reflect on members.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: In my concluding seconds, I can say confidently that the Marshall Liberal government is ending this grubby cash grab from South Australians and resetting the way that South Australians receive their water and sewerage charges in a fair and balanced way.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee.