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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-05 Daily Xml
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SA Water Regulatory Business Plan

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:33): My question is, again, to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Did the minister note or approve the SA Water 2024-28 Regulatory Business Plan, and does she stand by its contents? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: The SA Water 2024-28 Regulatory Business Plan indicates that SA Water observed several fast-tracked developments during the current regulatory period that were not projected to progress in that time frame. The business plan also references growth pressures as a significant step change in greenfield developments.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:33): That is exactly the point that I was making two questions ago about the fact that SA Water was not equipped in the previous regulatory determination with the financing that was required to be able to meet the demand that is now pressing and causing enormous pressure within South Australia.

The regulatory proposal, for people who understandably might not have gone through this experience before: every four years SA Water has a regulatory determination that's issued eventually by ESCOSA, saying, 'This is the money that we consider to be reasonable for water customers to pay for.' There are then also projects that are section 6—so the government has determined that they must be done regardless—and ESCOSA automatically deem them to be a legitimate expenditure of money.

The process starts some time before—so we are talking about what happens from 1 July this year. In the previous year SA Water starts to develop its proposal. It recognised early on that there had previously been this underfunding of growth, and was very concerned about making sure it was able to catch that up as quickly as possible so that we could have more housing for people who live in South Australia.

They put together that proposal and it is sent off to ESCOSA, who then consider it and issue a draft determination. It is all public; there is public consultation, various interest groups also participate and give feedback. At present, SA Water is looking at the draft determination and preparing its response, as are other organisations. Finally, there will then be a determination that ESCOSA has recognised the legitimate expenditure.

What is important to understand in all of that is that the role government has is, first of all, in issuing section 6s, and saying, 'You have to spend this money because otherwise there will be no housing for people in the future,' and, secondly, ultimately it is able to set the pricing each year. As I mentioned in my previous answer—although there was a fair amount of noise so not everyone may have been able to hear it—although the rules previously established were that that would always go up by CPI, in the last two years this government has chosen not to have it go up by CPI but to restrain the increase.

That decision will be made nearer 1 July so that we can calibrate what people are able to spend, given the cost of living challenges everybody is experiencing but also recognising the urgency of making sure the infrastructure is present in the future. That is not easy, but that is government. What is poor government is thinking you can just put everything off to the future and let some other government deal with it, someone else—other water payers can do it, other bill payers can do it.

Actually, now is the time we need this housing, now is the time that our young people are either stuck at home with their parents or are crammed into shared housing, or desperately looking for places they can rent, let alone buy. Now is the time we need to be making this investment, and in order to be able to facilitate that we are doing everything we can to restrain all the other costs so that we can both deliver reasonable water prices and invest in the future.

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