Water Pricing

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:16): My question is to the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is lowering the cost of living through reducing water and sewerage costs?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:16): I am very happy to update the house on the member for King's question. The member for King is a powerful advocate for reducing cost-of-living pressures across all of South Australia, but of course particularly among those residents she passionately advocates for in the seat of King. She is an incredibly hardworking and focused local member of parliament.

I can update this house on how we are going with regard to reducing cost-of-living pressures caused by the price of water and the price of sewerage connections here in South Australia. The member for King specifically asks about her electorate, and that is what I will refer to in the first instance. We know that under the new pricing regime brought into effect by the Marshall Liberal government from 1 July 2020—brought into effect from yesterday—people all across South Australia will see their water bills, and that includes their sewerage connection costs, significantly reduced.

If we look at the largest suburb in the seat of King, and that's the suburb of Golden Grove, where the median house price is $530,000, the annual savings based on water use for those who use a reasonable amount of water is $250 to $330 per annum. For those who use a good amount of water, the savings would be $310 to $440 per annum. That's based on a median house price in the community of Golden Grove. Those figures should not be underestimated. They will make a significant difference to people living in the member for King's electorate.

That means people in control of their own finance, not handing that money over to government but instead spending it in local cafes in the seat of King, spending it with local tradies in the seat of King, spending it in shops and retail organisations located within the seat of King, perhaps putting a little bit of money away and going out into a regional community and having a weekend away.

This sort of money will actually make a difference across a household budget on an annual basis. This is part of our reforms around water management. Why do we need to deal with this water pricing? Because we know that the books were cooked for many, many years under the former Labor government. A bit of compare and contrast, Mr Speaker: we know that you encourage this—

Mr Brown: Fourth time lucky.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford will leave for the remainder of question time under 137A.

The honourable member for Playford having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —and that contrasting is required because we know that well-respected South Australian businessman Lew Owens said in his independent inquiry into water pricing that SA Water's regulated asset base, that is, the accumulation of assets, is used to calculate how SA Water pricing is determined.

We know that under 16 years of Labor the books were cooked. That regulated asset base was pushed right up and that resulted in, year on year, South Australians having the cold hand of government ripping money out of their bank accounts and out of their wallets and not having control over as much of their household income as they could have. We are changing that. We are getting on with reforming the way that water prices are charged in this state. Of course, it is not just the seat of King that benefits.

The average reduction across South Australian households is $200 per household on the average water bill. We know that South Australian businesses will save on average $1,350. It was great to go out to Bickford's in the northern suburbs earlier in the week with the Premier and speak to them about how they were going to save on their very significant water bill—$37,000 a year that business will save, and they said they would invest it in plant, equipment and staffing and be able to invest in South Australia as opposed to handing that money over to the government. We are reforming water prices, we are reducing cost-of-living pressures and South Australians, I believe, will be really grateful for this approach.

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett is called to order.