Page 3620 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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I say hear, hear to that. I have been calling for this for some time, but the minister for water at various times has said we do not need to do that. This government spent tens of millions of dollars on urban waterways and stormwater reticulation projects without a proper cost-benefit analysis or even a business case. When I asked Mr Corbell what he intended to charge for water utilisation from urban waterways, he did not have an answer and he still does not.
We do not know what the government is proposing to charge and the government has not made any forecast of water consumption levels from urban waterway assets. The government and Mr Corbell do not know what revenue streams are likely to be generated. All of this was done based on a decision to spend tens of millions of dollars on a project which, in the words of the ICRC, was “unclear, disjointed and unresponsive”.
I noticed last night that Mr Corbell has latterly become an advocate for cost-benefit analysis in urban water projects. It will be a test of the relationship between the Labor Party and the Greens if Mr Corbell intends to stick to that policy. I hope he does not have an opportunity to do so; rather, that a sensible Canberra Liberal government will implement the policies with the ICRC in relation to secondary water use.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (3.45): The sustainable management of water resources is of critical importance and I am grateful to have the opportunity to comment briefly on the operations of Actew Corporation. I want to touch first on Actew’s new corporate structure, secondly on the challenging issue of water pricing in the ACT and, lastly, on some of the strategies that Actew has developed to improve its environmental performance.
From our discussions with Actew during estimates, we are confident that the recent restructure of Actew into Actew Water will enable improved outcomes for shareholders and, most importantly, for the territory, by removing obstacles to the achievement of important social and environmental outcomes. It appears that by reincorporating water and sewerage assets into Actew whilst continuing to source corporate and retail services from ActewAGL, Actew have already begun to witness improved outcomes.
As we understand it, last year’s internal review revealed competing demands in balancing profit with community objectives—for example, the promotion of water conservation as outlined in the Territory-owned Corporations Act. This is an issue faced by utilities worldwide; namely, how to transition away from being providers of resources to becoming providers of services—services which include energy efficiency and water conservation, services which will lead to a fundamental change in how utilities do business, from perpetuating resource over-consumption to becoming proponents of sustainable consumption.
This issue leads directly to the question of how we price water. There has been considerable debate about this here in the Assembly and throughout the community. We have seen the ACT community go to impressive lengths to conserve water. Meanwhile prices are set to increase, and this is a real dilemma. On the one hand, we
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