SA Water

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:17): The minister has confirmed that it was ESCOSA, and not the government, that drove down these prices and that it is ESCOSA that is punishing the government for ripping people off. My question based on the minister's answer is: will the minister now apologise to the families of South Australia and the businesses of South Australia for an outrageous situation over the last several years where he has ripped and overcharged these poor people of South Australia when it comes to water charges and sewerage charges? Will he apologise and admit he has ripped them off?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:17): I apologise to people every day for the Hon. Mr Brokenshire's antics and his commentary in the media because it is usually wrong. Let me take him through several examples in recent times where he has been completely wrong. The Hon. Mr Brokenshire and others, of course—he is not the only one—have made comments recently, including, I think, the Leader of the Opposition in the other place, that South Australians are charged the most for water in this country. This is factually incorrect.

The National Performance Report reports quite differently. The National Performance Report benchmarks the pricing and service quality of Australian water utilities. This is a report that is jointly prepared by the Bureau of Meteorology, state and territory governments and the Water Services Association of Australia. The NPR shows SA Water's combined water and wastewater bill for residential customers with an average usage of 200 kilolitres per annum was the fourth highest out of 13 major water utilities in Australia—those with more than 100,000 connections. I seek leave to table some tables contained on pages 41 and 80 of the NPR that contains this information.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Furthermore, based on typical residential bills and average residential water use reported by each utility, SA Water has the fifth highest combined water and wastewater bill out of 13 utilities. I seek leave to table tables found on pages 39 and 78 that demonstrate SA Water's ranking compared to other utilities.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: More facts!

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Yes, you can hardly have enough of them, can you? These tables demonstrate that in fact SA Water's pricing is mid range when viewed side by side with comparable utilities. What those opposite and the Hon. Mr Brokenshire will not tell you, Mr President, and you do need to know this, is that South Australians pay the least in the nation for wastewater services. The NPR shows that SA Water's wastewater bill for residential customers with an average usage of 200 kilolitres per annum was the lowest out of 13 major water utilities in Australia, those with more than 100,000 connections.

Based on the typical residential wastewater bill, SA Water had the second lowest wastewater bill out of the 13 utilities. Only City West Water had lower typical wastewater bills. Adelaide, SA  Water, had the second lowest typical wastewater bill out of the major urban centres, and I need to note, for transparency purposes, that Hobart did not report in that report.

The fact is that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire in his latest commentary will be happy to try to find any negative in a story. Rather than celebrating the effectiveness of independent regulation on water prices, they start a narrative that is indicative of government taking, somehow, prices out of the system. What the facts say is that SA Water's regulatory rate of return, when compared to other utilities, compares very favourably.

A lower regulatory return means lower prices for customers. SA Water has a regulatory rate of return of 4.2 per cent forecast for the second regulatory period 2016-22. This is compared to 7.06 per cent from SA Power Networks for their first regulatory period, driven down to 5.12 per cent in the second regulatory period, and I seek leave to table a copy found in SA Water's regulatory business proposals 2016-20 that demonstrates the comparative regulatory return rates.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: SA Water provides a high level, as I mentioned earlier, of revenue for community service obligations. For water, CSOs mean that there can be reductions on bills to certain disadvantaged customer groups. For example, pensioners, and CSOs provide common tariffs across all geographical regions, despite cost differences, at so-called postage stamp pricing policy. For 2016-17, SA Water provides $122.43 million, I am advised, in community service obligation. This equals around $42 million a year in concessions to around 120,000 property owners statewide. This can be up to, as I said earlier, 30 per cent concession on annual water bills for some people. Mr President, I seek leave to table a table found in the NPR that demonstrates SA Water's high rate of revenue from CSOs.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: I'm still not convinced.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, you might be convinced, Hon. Mr Brokenshire, when you read the factual information before you, instead of making it up or looking at nursery rhymes. I have to say, and I am very, very grateful to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire for raising these issues today, because it allows me to put on the record, once again, the facts of the matter. It is incumbent on honourable members when they go out into the media that they do not go around saying untruths to the community—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —untruths about the facts, which they could readily find themselves by reading these reports. In fact, there are some people who have been making these claims on the radio—and I am trying to update my language for the Hon. Mr Dawkins.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr Dawkins is trying to educate me about the age of radio that is now upon us. But, if you do do that, if you do go on the radio to talk to the community, you need to have the facts before you. I have written to the Leader of the Opposition in the past and provided him with that information, which shows him, quite clearly, that we do not have the highest water prices in the country, and yet he persists in his delusion. That is all he has to offer South Australia, delusions.