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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 41 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

freeze prices. These measures will cost some $25m. It is also facing a multimillion-dollar class action. The New South Wales Auditor-General has questioned why the Government has not inserted water quality standards into the licence conditions for Sydney Water. The Auditor-General stated:

... the Minister for Planning issues a water licence for Sydney Water and he has an auditor to examine the licence conditions including water quality standards. The question is why, if in 1988 Milwaukee had 100 deaths and several thousand illnesses from a cryptosporidium outbreak, 10 years later, that was not in the licence conditions.

It is still not in place. This is not in the private sector, but in the public sector. In her first five months in office, the New South Wales Energy Industry Ombudsman has received more than 1,200 complaints. So let us again ask the question: Who owns these businesses in Queensland and New South Wales? The answer is obvious, Mr Speaker. They are government owned. We have heard lots of comments about Auckland, even in the advertisements of those opposite. The Auckland power distributor, Mercury Power, is a government business enterprise, really no different from what ACTEW is today.

Now let us look at what occurred in Victoria following privatisation of the electricity industry. In regard to electricity prices in Victoria, the real price of electricity for domestic customers fell by 9 per cent between July 1993 and June 1996 and the prices are still falling. After June 1996, a further 2 per cent cut to domestic customers was delivered and reductions of one per cent, in real terms, will be delivered each year up until December 2000. But this is only for domestic customers. Real reductions in prices totalling 22 per cent should be delivered to small and medium-sized business customers through to 31 December 2000. In addition to better prices, service levels have also improved in Victoria since that State's electricity privatisation program began. The independent Regulator-General in Victoria, Dr John Tamblyn, has stated:

Of Victoria's 5 previously Government owned distribution companies the reliability improved from 510 minutes off supply per annum in 1989-90 to 218 minutes in 1996-97 - a 50% improvement in reliability of power supply to consumers. All private distribution companies have recorded a reduction in disconnection levels for non-payment, by 47% for residential and 36% for business. This reflects a major commitment to provide a better and more customer focused level of service.

It has been suggested that the electricity retail business is the only activity that is facing competition; that all we need to do is sell that part of the business and the problem will be fixed. This is simplistic in the extreme, Mr Speaker. Mind you, the legislation that I think members are about to knock off is exactly the bit of legislation we would have to pass to do that.

Mr Speaker, ACTEW's distribution business also faces significant risks. For example, the proportion of households switching to gas for space heating increased from 6 per cent in 1983 to 46 per cent in 1994. Gas has the dominant share of heating, hot water and cooking in newer suburbs. Once the Longford to Sydney gas pipeline, which will also feed into the Canberra market, brings competition and lower gas prices to the ACT,

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