WATER
CORPORATION — REBRANDING
395. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Water:
I
have a supplementary question. Can the minister guarantee the public of Western
Australia that the Water Corporation will not continue to waste public
money in a similar way without his approval in the future?
Mr D.J.
KELLY replied:
There is a whole range of
accountability mechanisms in place. One of them is estimates. I am not sure
whether the member has gone back and had a look at the contribution and
performance of the alliance, as I think it is called now, during estimates. It
was absolutely pathetic. The opposition had a couple of hours to quiz the
government on all things to do with the Water Corporation. The member should
rerun the tape and have a look at it; it is pretty appalling. The member can
ask questions at estimates, he can ask questions, he has the annual reports and
the Auditor General—all those mechanisms are in place.
As
I say, if we look at what the Water Corporation does, we see that of all the
capital cities, we have the lowest level of leaks and bursts. Look at the
hardship programs that the Water Corporation has put in place compared with
when the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Water and the former
government restricted water to 2 500 families a year—that is 50 a week—because
they could not pay their water bills. That is the opposition's track
record when it was managing this
portfolio. Compare that with what is happening on this side when we are in
government. Nothing is ever perfect, but we are a damn sight better than
when you were in government.