House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-28 Daily Xml

Contents

Water Pricing

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Regional Development. Has the minister received feedback from primary producers that water bills are too high and, if so, does he agree?

Members interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Tom, you can't—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Yes, I can.

Mr GRIFFITHS: You are not linked with him. You are not telepathically linked with him; you don't know!

The SPEAKER: Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (15:08): Sir, when people complain about their water pricing, that comes to the Treasurer or the Minister for Water. No doubt, Mr Speaker, there are a number of people who are unhappy with whatever price they pay for water. But, I tell you what is worse than paying a lot for water: not having water to pay for at all.

What we have done is invested into the future of our water security by making sure that our desal plant is up and running and that it has capacity to maintain a level of service for the people of this state to make sure we can maintain agriculture, that we can maintain industry, and that we can keep the prosperity in this state growing. Why the opposition who first called on the government to build a desal plant is now so violently opposed to it is beyond me.