Parliamentary question without notice | Water Rates Notices
18/11/2014
The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Water and the River Murray a question regarding water bills.
Leave granted.
The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: In 1986, an agreement was made between myself as Valuer-General and SA Water that SA Water would print the valuation of all properties on water rates notices in lieu of the State Valuation Office issuing annual notices of valuation at a cost of approximately $2 million per annum. However, SA Water currently only provide the valuation of a property on the rates notice if the value is more than the minimum value required to attract the minimum sewerage rate.
Those whose properties are below this threshold receive no valuation advice on their water rates notice. I met with SA Water approximately three years ago to discuss this issue and also raised the issue of increasing the font size used on page 2 of the bills to make them easier to read. Can the minister advise whether SA Water will be adhering to the agreement to print all valuations on water rates notices and, if not, why not? Can the minister advise why SA Water is unable to increase the font size used on water bills to assist those with visual impairment?
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) ( 15:09 :50 ): It is something that we are taking into consideration, but I have to add that any alteration you want to make to the SA Water bill means you need to make some other consequent alteration to the bill—take something off, for example—or else you are going to increase the size of the bill. If you want to increase the font size, you are going to have to add another page. If you want to add information to the bill then you are going to have to change the systems that produce those bills, with the consequent costs in ICT.
So, there is no free lunch in this process. We try to give the consumer and the customer of SA Water the best information we possibly can that is relevant to them in terms of the bills that are provided to them but, if you want to make changes, you need to understand they come at a cost. The person who will pay that cost at the end of the day is the SA Water customer, and we are particularly concerned in this government to drive down costs to the SA Water customer.
The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Ms Vincent.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I might have misheard something—and I know the minister is not a great fan of technology—but I am not sure why increasing the font size of a document would cost more.
The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation): It just does, because you either take something off the document to fit in the increased size of the font—some other bits of information—or you increase the number of pages associated with that document. That all comes at a cost, not the least being the redesign of the bill, of course, and the printing that is required through your ICT system.
The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Franks has a supplementary.
