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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4988 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

(d) an appropriate rate of return on any investment in the regulated industry;

(e) the cost of providing the regulated services;

(f) the principles of ecologically sustainable development referred to in subsection 7(2) of the Territory Owned Corporations Act 1990 as modified by virtue of subsection 4(1) of that Act, whether or not -

(i) the regulated industry is the electricity or water industry; or

(ii) the provider of the regulated services is ACTEW Corporation Ltd.;

(g) the social impacts of the decision;

(h) considerations of demand management and least cost planning;

(i) the borrowing, capital and cash flow requirements of persons providing regulated services and the need to renew or increase relevant assets in the regulated industry;

(j) the effect on general price inflation over the medium term; and

(k) any arrangements that a person providing regulated services has entered into for the exercise of its functions by some other person.

You will notice, Mr Speaker, that there are not any other matters in that. In that legislation, we set out a very balanced approach. We said, "The pricing commissioner has to look at a very balanced approach and, as priority one, they have to look at the protection of consumers from abuse". That was priority one. That is what we put in paragraph (2)(a). The Minister has suggested that what the commission should do is consider the desirability of the following matters:

(a) achieving full cost recovery for services; -

at whose expense? -

(b) maintaining the viability of the Corporation and generating an appropriate return to the owner (the Government) in proportion to the risks involved; -

after all, this is incredibly subjective; who is going to judge that? -

(c) elimination of cross subsidies between classes of customers and between the Corporation's different businesses -

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