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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-05-17 Daily Xml
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SA Water

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Water and the River Murray.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Minister stated last week that SA Water's breaks are around 14 per 100 kilometres per annum. Why then does the most recent annual report of SA Water Corporation state that it is 19.3 per 100 kilometres per annum for the metropolitan area?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:31): That is advice I think I have given the Hon. Mr Wade when he asked a supplementary question at some stage in the recent past about breaking down the figures between the statewide figure and the metropolitan figure. The statewide figure, as I said, is around 14 and the metropolitan figure is around 19. The benchmark guide that is set by ESCOSA is around 21, and I have given the figures in this place many times previously about how we compare to our interstate water utilities. We are at the top of the tree. We are in the top quota. If you compare it to Victoria, or Sydney, or Brisbane—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Brokenshire pretends—

The PRESIDENT: Don’t fight with the Hon. Mr Brokenshire, minister.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: —that water utilities are unique, that they don't have any relation to water utilities in other states, that the business model is completely different. There are some unique aspects to water utilities in South Australia, because we have to put up with the soil conditions that the Hon. Mr Ridgway does not believe exist. The Bay of Biscay soils, the expansive clay soil that underlies a lot of Adelaide, particularly in the eastern suburbs adjacent to the foothills, which cause us even more problems. Yet, even with those expansive clay soils we have better outcomes than comparable water utilities which have a connected customer base of greater than 100,000. A greater outcome than most of those other utilities. We are right at the top of the tree. That is because SA Water has been investing and refurbishing its infrastructure for more than a decade.

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