❓ Dr. Honey questions the Minister for Water regarding water pricing policies and their impact on larger families. The Minister defends the government's record, highlighting support for struggling families and those with medical needs requiring high water usage.
AnsweredQoN 228Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WATER PRICES
228. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Water:
I have a supplementary question.
What drives the minister's hostility to families with two or more
children that he would punish them financially just because they happen to need
more water than smaller families?
228. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Water:
I have a supplementary question.
What drives the minister's hostility to families with two or more
children that he would punish them financially just because they happen to need
more water than smaller families?
AnswerView source ↗
The
member for Cottesloe obviously did not listen to the answer to the question. I reminded
you that when you were in government and the Leader of the Opposition was the
Minister for Water, the water supply of 2 500 families was reduced to a trickle
every year because they were struggling to pay their water bills. That is how
you dealt with families.
Prior to COVID, we reduced that
number by 60 or 70 per cent. During COVID, we actually stopped that practice
altogether. I am not going to be lectured by you about what we can do to assist
families. Through the processes we have put in place, we discovered that over
100 households had significantly high water bills because a member of the
household was doing home dialysis. That is something that saves taxpayers'
money because they are not having dialysis in hospitals. What did we do? We
started the Medical Assist program whereby we gave families who have a family
member on home dialysis 30 000 litres of free water every two months so that
they could do dialysis at home and not end up with a huge water bill. We
actually care about workers and we care about their families, and through the
structures that we have put in place through the Water Corporation, we are
helping those families who, for whatever reason, may be struggling to pay their
water bills.
member for Cottesloe obviously did not listen to the answer to the question. I reminded
you that when you were in government and the Leader of the Opposition was the
Minister for Water, the water supply of 2 500 families was reduced to a trickle
every year because they were struggling to pay their water bills. That is how
you dealt with families.
Prior to COVID, we reduced that
number by 60 or 70 per cent. During COVID, we actually stopped that practice
altogether. I am not going to be lectured by you about what we can do to assist
families. Through the processes we have put in place, we discovered that over
100 households had significantly high water bills because a member of the
household was doing home dialysis. That is something that saves taxpayers'
money because they are not having dialysis in hospitals. What did we do? We
started the Medical Assist program whereby we gave families who have a family
member on home dialysis 30 000 litres of free water every two months so that
they could do dialysis at home and not end up with a huge water bill. We
actually care about workers and we care about their families, and through the
structures that we have put in place through the Water Corporation, we are
helping those families who, for whatever reason, may be struggling to pay their
water bills.
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