Page 3380 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 September 1991
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think, shoots Mr Moore's argument down in flames. His claim that the Assembly members should be the people who determine the amount of water that is available to the community, on the simple basis that somehow he fears that it is a revenue raising item being put forward by the Government, is sheer nonsense. Because this matter is so important, as you say, to the community, why do you then not argue that the Assembly should set the rates for electricity charges, or the rates that we charge for our water and sewerage?
Mr Moore: It is excess. It is not the rate.
MR DUBY: No. The excess water charge is an integral component of the charges that are set by ACTEW as the water and sewerage rates. It is a totally different issue. When customers know that they can save money by using water carefully, they will use less water. It is quite appropriate that ACTEW management, with the power of disallowance set with the Minister, should be able - it was one of the things that I was quite pleased to see coming under corporatisation of ACTEW - to set the appropriate levels of water which are available and which are paid for under the water and sewerage rate.
People somehow seem to think that a certain amount of water, at the moment 455 kilolitres per year, is free. There is no such thing as free water. It is simply that, under the charging structure, 455 kilolitres per year has been the amount set as being an appropriate level of water usage within this community. I think people know that if we can reduce the amount of water that is used by each household we can defer the requirement for an additional water supply dam and the related capital works, which will cost in excess of some $100m. There is no question about that; it is going to be required. It is going to have to come. It is like tomorrow; it will be here one day. That necessity will be there. So, what we need to do is provide people with the incentive to use water carefully.
As I said, the current basic allowance before excess water charges apply is 455 kilolitres per customer per year, and over the long term about a third of domestic users use less than 455 kilolitres. There is very little incentive for those customers to use less water. This announcement that the level would be reducing from 455 to 350 kilolitres per year has been in place for some time - since June 1990. I accept Mr Kaine's point of view that it was introduced as part, perhaps, of a corporatisation process for ACTEW, to provide its management with the facilities to address these issues. But in my view we should simply leave what is essentially a commercial decision to be determined, first of all, by the board and management of ACTEW, and, secondly, as a court of final appeal, by the Minister.
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