❓ Mr. Logan questions the justification for a 6% increase in water prices and accuses the Minister of concealing future price hikes. The Minister defends the increase as reasonable and lower than recommended, citing rising costs and acknowledging the impact of the carbon tax.
AnsweredQoN 247Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
STATE
BUDGET 2012–13 — WATER PRICES
247. Mr F.M. LOGAN to the Minister for Water:
I refer to last week's budget release and increases
in water bills by six per cent for this year alone.
(1) On what basis is the six per
cent price hike justified?
(2) Why does the minister continue
to hide the amount of future water price hikes?
BUDGET 2012–13 — WATER PRICES
247. Mr F.M. LOGAN to the Minister for Water:
I refer to last week's budget release and increases
in water bills by six per cent for this year alone.
(1) On what basis is the six per
cent price hike justified?
(2) Why does the minister continue
to hide the amount of future water price hikes?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Cockburn for the question. The Economic Regulation
Authority provides the government with advice on what increases we should
charge for water. We have not adopted that recommended increase; we have chosen
a lower increase of only six per cent this year. That is the price increase
across all three services for water, waste water and drainage. We have done
that on the basis that we understand that the people of Western Australia are
hurting somewhat from some of the recent price increases. We have adopted what
we think is a reasonable increase to take care of the consumer price increase
in charges for the extra cost of providing water, sewerage and drainage. I
think the six per cent increase is a fairly reasonable increase. Of course,
that does not include the carbon tax, which will be another impost on that. At
this stage, we believe that will be 0.8 per cent. The overall increase for
householders in Western Australia will be about 6.8 per cent.
thank the member for Cockburn for the question. The Economic Regulation
Authority provides the government with advice on what increases we should
charge for water. We have not adopted that recommended increase; we have chosen
a lower increase of only six per cent this year. That is the price increase
across all three services for water, waste water and drainage. We have done
that on the basis that we understand that the people of Western Australia are
hurting somewhat from some of the recent price increases. We have adopted what
we think is a reasonable increase to take care of the consumer price increase
in charges for the extra cost of providing water, sewerage and drainage. I
think the six per cent increase is a fairly reasonable increase. Of course,
that does not include the carbon tax, which will be another impost on that. At
this stage, we believe that will be 0.8 per cent. The overall increase for
householders in Western Australia will be about 6.8 per cent.
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