Page 2849 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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… that the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission, in its next review of water pricing in the ACT, consider a pricing point for community usage to support community owned facilities such as sporting facilities.
The government’s response was:
Noted.
Under the terms of the Industry Panel’s substituted price direction for regulated water and sewerage services, the regulator is required to undertake a review of the tariff structures for the regulated water and sewerage services provided by Icon Water before the next regulatory period commences from 1 July 2018.
So that is some years away. It continued:
The tariff review process, which will include a call for submissions from the ACT community, represents the appropriate mechanism for considering issues such as whether a specific water tariff for community-owned facilities should be introduced.
It is the answer that one would expect given the way that the industry panel has set up the period. So it would appear that clubs that are doing it a bit tough, particularly the golf clubs and bowling clubs which take a great deal of water to keep going, will have to wait until at least 2018 before we get an answer to whether or not we will get a pricing point for them in that regard.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Urban Renewal and Minister for Tourism and Events) (12.09): The ICRC is a statutory body established under the ICRC act 1997. Its three main objectives, outlined in section 7, are to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers, to facilitate an appropriate balance between efficiency, environmental and social considerations, and to ensure non-discriminatory access to monopoly and near-monopoly infrastructure.
The commission’s functions are outlined in section 8 of the act. These broadly include setting prices for regulated services in the territory, including regulated water and sewerage services and retail electricity prices for small electricity customers; regulating access to infrastructure for regulated services in the territory; licensing utility services; investigating and reporting on competitive neutrality complaints; and a range of other regulatory and administrative matters.
I commend the appropriation to the Assembly.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Justice and Community Safety Directorate—schedule 1, part 1.15.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (12.10): At the outset let me say that this is an area where I will have some critique of the government but I will also share some praise. There are areas in which I say to the government well done for
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