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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-29 Daily Xml
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HOUSING SA WATER POLICY

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:04): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Mineral Resources Development, representing the Minister for Housing, questions about Housing SA's policy on water consumption and meters.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: About a month ago, I was contacted by a constituent, Mr Steven Crockford, regarding his 78 year old mother, Mrs Georgina Crockford. Mrs Crockford lives in a Housing SA unit. Her unit is one of five in the group. Mrs Crockford lives alone; however, there are up to five people living in each of the other units in the group. Mr Crockford contacted me because he did not believe it was fair that Housing SA divided the water usage equally between the units. He believed that, as his mother was a sole tenant, she would have used less water than those units with five tenants. However, under Housing SA's policy, water consumption is divided equally between all those who share the meter.

I made inquiries on Mrs Crockford's behalf to Housing SA, asking for either a separate water meter to be installed or for the method of calculating the water usage to be changed to take into account the difference in the number of tenants. I had previously made inquiries of a similar nature to Housing SA, and was told explicitly that it was not Housing SA policy to provide separate meters for tenants as it was simply not economically viable. I was given the same response when I made inquiries on behalf of Mrs Crockford.

Housing SA was also unwilling to consider an alternative method of calculating consumption. However, Mr Crockford contacted Channel 7's Today Tonight, which aired this story on Tuesday 22 June, only three weeks after I had made inquiries on his behalf. I understand that Mrs Crockford has now been provided with a new meter. My questions are:

1. Could the minister clarify what Housing SA's policy is in regard to dividing water consumption for properties that share a metre and also Housing SA's policy on providing separate water meters?

2. Has Housing SA changed its policy with regard to providing separate water meters for each property?

3. Will Housing SA now be providing a separate water meter for each of its properties; and, if so, what is the cost and who is responsible for the cost?

4. Why did Housing SA provide a separate meter for Mrs Crockford after explicitly telling my office that this was not possible, and was it the media's influence that caused a backflip in Mrs Crockford's circumstance?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:07): I thank the honourable member for his important questions. I will refer those questions to the Minister for Housing in another place and bring back a response.

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