SA Water

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:34): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Water and the River Murray a question about the Annual Report of the Energy and Water Ombudsman SA.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: In his Annual Report for 2014-15, the Energy and Water Ombudsman stated that:

Billing, sales and marketing and credit management were the top complaint issues this financial year. Of concern, credit management issues increased by 25 per cent when most other complaint categories declined. This may indicate that more customers are experiencing difficulty in paying for energy and water or [are] unable to negotiate suitable payment arrangements with their suppliers.

The report further outlined, under the heading 'Credit management—financial hardship', that the results highlighted that the percentage of hardship cases in the metropolitan north was the highest, with 31 per cent of total complaints. This is higher than the area's share of the state population at about 25 per cent. My questions to the minister are:

1. With credit management issues identified as the top complaint category, when will the government address the high cost of utilities in South Australia?

2. With the northern suburbs recorded as one of the highest complaints areas in South Australia, how will the government address the cost of living pressures for the most vulnerable people and families living with financial hardship?

3. What measures and targets have been put in place by the government to ensure that the credit management issues are addressed promptly?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. I do need to explain to her, though, why the premise of her question is completely wrong, and I will do that in the course of my answer.

SA Water has implemented several initiatives aimed at providing assistance to customers, including targeted assistance to customers experiencing financial hardship through its Customer Assist program, water and sewerage concessions to eligible property owners on behalf of the government and flexible ways to manage water usage. SA Water has provided tailored support and assistance to approximately 7,000 customers, I am advised, who are experiencing financial hardship through its Customer Assist program.

SA Water is continuing to improve this program by implementing early identification strategies to ensure that hardship customers are identified and receive necessary support early in the debt cycle; providing training for SA Water's customer service staff to easily identify early indicators of hardship; attending community events to promote the Customer Assist program and affordability issues for customers; and implementing the Free Plumbing program to enable hardship customers to maximise the water efficiency of their homes.

These initiatives have assisted SA Water to actually get out into the front line and talk to customers, in many cases before they actually experience difficulties with paying their bills, and to offer customers right up-front some assistance if they think into the near future they could take advantage of these customer hardship provisions and supports the agency is providing.

The number of customers fluctuates each month, depending on SA Water's billing cycle, which has a major effect on when customers join or complete the program. SA Water has recently implemented an early intervention strategy which, as I said just now, is expected to see a continuing increase in metro and regional customers participating in the Customer Assist program. That is because of proactive engagement by SA Water. Rather than waiting for people to get into difficulties and trying to help them sort them out, SA Water is actually engaging with customers early up-front and encouraging them to participate in some of our assistance programs.

I am advised that the average debts of customers participating in the program continues to increase as customers with lower debts or those who have completed the program are being replaced by new customers with higher debts. That is just an axiomatic outcome, indeed, of assisting customers to come out of debt and getting new customers coming through the system.

As part of SA Water's water industry retail licence issued on 1 January 2013 by the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, SA Water is required to participate in an industry ombudsman scheme, as the honourable member outlined. Eight water authorities are members of the Energy and Water Ombudsman SA (EWOSA) scheme, with two new water members joining during the last financial year, I am advised.

EWOSA is an independent body established to facilitate the resolution of complaints and disputes between customers of energy, water and waste water services and the providers of those services. On 29 October 2015 EWOSA released its annual report for 2014-15. I understand the number of inquiries and complaints about water and waste water services remained at a very low level compared with those relating to energy services.

Of the 12,355 cases received by EWOSA in 2014-15, 638 cases were related to SA Water services. That is just 5.165 per cent of the total. It is worth repeating, for the honourable member's interest, that of the 12,355 cases received by EWOSA in 2014-15, only 638 cases were related to SA Water services. Of the 342 complaints requiring referral to SA Water, 13 complaints related to financial hardship, which is just 3.8 per cent. During 2014-15, SA Water provided assistance to an average of 3,052 customers per month suffering financial hardship under its Customer Assist program. I am advised that the average time a customer was registered on the program was approximately 343 days, and the average debt per customer was approximately $1,500.

SA Water advised that it continues to address initiatives to improve this program by implementing early identification strategies to ensure that hardship customers are identified and receive necessary support early in the debt cycle (I have already covered off on that), providing training for SA Water's customer service staff to easily identify early indicators for hardship, attending community events to promote the Customer Assist program and affordability issues for customers and implementation of the free plumbing program to enable hardship customers to maximise the water efficiency of their home, as I just mentioned.

I understand that the EWOSA annual report references a 6 per cent reduction from the previous financial year in the number of inquiries received for SA Water. Overall, the number of complaints requiring referral to SA Water decreased by 5.62 per cent on 2014-15, and the most common case type for 2014-15 received by SA Water remains their billing of customers.

So, it is worthwhile the honourable member reflecting on the tone of her question and her preamble, trying to engender some sense of emergency or panic when there is none. In a proactive and useful way for our customers, what SA Water is doing is engaging with them early before they get into difficulties and encouraging them into our assistance program and also training their customer service staff to more easily identify people who would benefit from that assistance program. Encouraging people into the assistance program is a worthwhile thing to do, not something to complain about, because we are giving our customers a much better service and trying to help them avoid getting into large debt by entering into time repayment billing processes.