❓ Mr Hort raises concerns about electricity connection delays for families in Walliston Heights, causing financial hardship. The Minister acknowledges the delays, outlines steps taken to improve connection times, and highlights progress made through government initiatives and collaboration with industry.
AnsweredQoN 514Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Western Power—Residential connections
514. Mr Adam Hort to
the Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation:
Is the minister
aware that families in Walliston Heights have been waiting since March for
Western Power to connect electricity so that they can start building their
homes, which is forcing them into financial hardship and placing unnecessary
pressure on an already tight rental market?
514. Mr Adam Hort to
the Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation:
Is the minister
aware that families in Walliston Heights have been waiting since March for
Western Power to connect electricity so that they can start building their
homes, which is forcing them into financial hardship and placing unnecessary
pressure on an already tight rental market?
AnswerView source ↗
First of all, I want
to acknowledge the first question that I have been asked by the opposition in
question time, since it has been in opposition—
Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.
The Speaker: Leader of the Opposition, I am going to
call you for the first time. There is no need for that.
Ms Amber-Jade Sanderson: —despite the Leader of the Opposition stating that energy was a
priority. So, I welcome the question. Thank you, Member for Kalamunda, for
finally asking a question on what is apparently an opposition priority.
Western Power
connection times are longer than the government would like, and we have been
working diligently with Western Power to reduce those times. I acknowledge that
they are not where we need them to be, and Western Power openly acknowledges
that they are not where they need to be. I want to credit my colleague the
former Minister for Energy for the work that was started under him and we are
seeing some quite significant improvements in that timeframe. We did see that
before COVID, there was a very steady number of applications for energisations
and connections to site, and it was the same every year. After COVID, that
exploded. It absolutely exploded. We have seen that in a number of sectors and
the pressure that that has put on them. Having said that, we need Western Power
to recover. We have supported them and resourced them to do that to enable
those housing connections to come on quicker. We do not want Western Power to
be a limitation on housing. We are working very diligently with the sector, the
Urban Development Institute of Australia in particular, on how we can make some
of the improvements that were started under the former Minister for Energy.
I will run through
what some of those are. In late 2003, Western Power began to work on improving
the land development connection times as a priority. Rather than dealing with
everything that came in order, housing became an absolute priority. It
implemented a number of improvement initiatives and co-designed the
improvements with the UDIA in close consultation with individual property
developers and the Property Council of Australia as well. The early feedback is
that there are some green shoots and improvements in those times. It doubled
the specialist engineering team, with more dedicated customer connection staff.
It increased the stock of important infrastructure like transformers. It is
investing $10 million in a new portal. It has refined the clearance processes
so that land developers can access certificates of title earlier, and is
accelerating project delivery. It is also certifying and accrediting third
parties to be able to energise sites, which is something that Western Power has
not done on a large scale. It is now doing that a lot more and developers are
reporting that that is working. The third party audit scheme is also providing
a fast track. Those results are being borne out in some of the numbers. There
is still a backlog, I will acknowledge, and Western Power is focused on
prioritising that backlog and the housing requests that come in.
To give the member a
sense of where those numbers are going, the design information package
timeframes in 2024 went from 137 days to between 12 and 34 days. It is a
significant improvement. There is still more work to do. The design conformance
reviews have gone from 212 days—I acknowledge that is unacceptably long—to
between 87 and 140 days in this year. There is movement in the right direction.
Western Power is resourcing the team and is focused on the issue. Also, the
average time to resource a new subdivision has gone from 16 weeks to six weeks.
The timeframes are coming down significantly because of the work that this
government has done with Western Power. We have also resourced the Water Corporation
and Western Power through the Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund to unlock a
lot of that residential land, which is in high demand. With regard to the
member for Kalamunda's particular constituents, I am more than happy to work
with the member and for him to write to me or work with my office on how we can
progress their particular development, because I acknowledge that some of the
bigger developers probably have more access to Western Power and smaller
developers are perhaps not getting the prioritisation that they need.
to acknowledge the first question that I have been asked by the opposition in
question time, since it has been in opposition—
Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.
The Speaker: Leader of the Opposition, I am going to
call you for the first time. There is no need for that.
Ms Amber-Jade Sanderson: —despite the Leader of the Opposition stating that energy was a
priority. So, I welcome the question. Thank you, Member for Kalamunda, for
finally asking a question on what is apparently an opposition priority.
Western Power
connection times are longer than the government would like, and we have been
working diligently with Western Power to reduce those times. I acknowledge that
they are not where we need them to be, and Western Power openly acknowledges
that they are not where they need to be. I want to credit my colleague the
former Minister for Energy for the work that was started under him and we are
seeing some quite significant improvements in that timeframe. We did see that
before COVID, there was a very steady number of applications for energisations
and connections to site, and it was the same every year. After COVID, that
exploded. It absolutely exploded. We have seen that in a number of sectors and
the pressure that that has put on them. Having said that, we need Western Power
to recover. We have supported them and resourced them to do that to enable
those housing connections to come on quicker. We do not want Western Power to
be a limitation on housing. We are working very diligently with the sector, the
Urban Development Institute of Australia in particular, on how we can make some
of the improvements that were started under the former Minister for Energy.
I will run through
what some of those are. In late 2003, Western Power began to work on improving
the land development connection times as a priority. Rather than dealing with
everything that came in order, housing became an absolute priority. It
implemented a number of improvement initiatives and co-designed the
improvements with the UDIA in close consultation with individual property
developers and the Property Council of Australia as well. The early feedback is
that there are some green shoots and improvements in those times. It doubled
the specialist engineering team, with more dedicated customer connection staff.
It increased the stock of important infrastructure like transformers. It is
investing $10 million in a new portal. It has refined the clearance processes
so that land developers can access certificates of title earlier, and is
accelerating project delivery. It is also certifying and accrediting third
parties to be able to energise sites, which is something that Western Power has
not done on a large scale. It is now doing that a lot more and developers are
reporting that that is working. The third party audit scheme is also providing
a fast track. Those results are being borne out in some of the numbers. There
is still a backlog, I will acknowledge, and Western Power is focused on
prioritising that backlog and the housing requests that come in.
To give the member a
sense of where those numbers are going, the design information package
timeframes in 2024 went from 137 days to between 12 and 34 days. It is a
significant improvement. There is still more work to do. The design conformance
reviews have gone from 212 days—I acknowledge that is unacceptably long—to
between 87 and 140 days in this year. There is movement in the right direction.
Western Power is resourcing the team and is focused on the issue. Also, the
average time to resource a new subdivision has gone from 16 weeks to six weeks.
The timeframes are coming down significantly because of the work that this
government has done with Western Power. We have also resourced the Water Corporation
and Western Power through the Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund to unlock a
lot of that residential land, which is in high demand. With regard to the
member for Kalamunda's particular constituents, I am more than happy to work
with the member and for him to write to me or work with my office on how we can
progress their particular development, because I acknowledge that some of the
bigger developers probably have more access to Western Power and smaller
developers are perhaps not getting the prioritisation that they need.
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