SA Water

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:29): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to directing a question to the Minister for Water on the subject of a water leak survey.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Late last month, a small business owner did some media in relation to a reported leak and then a rupture of SA Water pipes on Magill Road. He did some media—both radio and television—and indicated that he had rung SA Water about a week before the rupture of the pipes, indicating that there was a leak of water at this particular area of Magill Road. The SA Water representatives, at least initially, denied to the media that they had been advised earlier of this problem.

This small business owner has indicated that later that day he was rung by a person who indicated they were from SA Water, and indicated they were conducting a survey and put a series of questions to this person in relation to SA Water-related issues and, in particular, the leak or the water pipe rupture. In particular, he was asked to rate how SA Water had handled the leak on Magill Road on a scoring continuum from zero to 10, and he advised me that the lady very helpfully indicated to him that zero was the least favourable score. He said that was very useful: he was told that zero was the least favourable score. He was asked to rate SA Water's handling of the leak from a score of zero to 10. My questions are:

1. Who is conducting this survey for SA Water? If it is an external consultant, what is the name of the external consultant, and at what cost has that consultant been employed to conduct the survey?

2. Has the minister, or any officer in his ministerial office, been provided with any details of the results of this survey?

3. Finally, will the minister bring back to the house details of what average score SA Water has recorded in relation to the way it handles leaks or pipe ruptures on a score from zero to 10 and, as the lady from SA Water indicated, where zero is the worst possible score?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:32): I am very, very grateful for the honourable member's most important questions. Once again we see the Liberals in this place talking about issues of SA Water's leaking pipes and burst water mains and still don't comprehend that it is a normal part of business in water businesses right around the world, and still don't comprehend that with the investment of about $350 million being split into two ways—one has been addressing the immediate leaks and the other has been infrastructure refurbishments—we actually end up at being right at the top of the tree in terms of our equivalent water businesses around the country.

But they won't admit that; they won't acknowledge that. They won't acknowledge the significant amount of expertise and work in planning that goes into making us at the top of the tree in terms of our comparative utilities from around the country because it doesn't suit their political purposes.

SA Water do a number of customer surveys, of course. I think one of them is, in fact, required of them by ESCOSA, and that's to look at the businesses that SA Water are involved in and measuring customer satisfaction with those businesses, and testing the desires for improvements in one area or another. This survey that the honourable member talks about doesn't seem to be that sort of survey to me. This may well be a very regular post-contact survey.

I'm not aware of whether SA Water do post-contact surveys with their customers, but if they did, that wouldn't surprise me. That would seem to me like a reasonable business practice. So, I will take the questions of the honourable member on notice and ask SA Water whether, in fact, this was a post-contact survey, and come back with any information that I can find out for him.