AIRD BUNGLES AGAIN

Water and Sewerage Annual Reports Not Tabled

www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today revealed that Treasurer Michael Aird has not complied with the requirements of his own legislation by failing to table in the Parliament the Annual Reports of the three Regional Water Corporations as required by section 37 of the Water and Sewerage Corporations Act 2008.

Greens Water spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that if the Treasurer is incapable of even doing the most basic of things that he is required to in relation to his so called reform process, which is to make sure the Annual reports are tabled in Parliament, how can anyone have any confidence that he has got the more complex matters right?

“Section 37 of the Water and Sewerage Corporations Act requires the water corporations to provide their Annual Reports to the Treasurer within three months of the end of the financial year, then for the Treasurer to present them to parliament within seven days after receiving it and they are still not tabled yet they have been posted on their websites some time ago,” Mr Morris said.

“This Treasurer is incapable of meeting even the most basic requirements in his own legislation in relation to his responsibilities t the parliament, so how does he expect anyone to believe him on any other matter on the issue of water and sewerage?”

He has continued to claim that he capped the price rises at 10% to avoid price shocks, but with the massive recent electricity price rises having recently been introduced the increased water bills that people have been receiving, have come as a real shock.

“It is time the Treasurer understood the pain he is causing in the community and gave the Economic Regulator some better Terms of Reference and asked him to immediately recommence work on coming up with a more acceptable and appropriate financing methodology than ripping several million extra dollars out of the back pockets of Tasmanians year after year.”

Reference: section 37 of the Water and Sewerage Corporations Act 2008

37. Provision of information to Treasurer and Parliament

(1) The Board of each Corporation is to provide to the members of the Corporation and the Treasurer a copy of the annual report of the Corporation, by no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year to which the annual report relates.

(2) The Treasurer is to cause to be laid before each House of Parliament each copy provided to the Treasurer under subsection (1) within 7 days after receiving it.

(3) If the Treasurer is unable to comply with subsection (1) because a House of Parliament is not sitting on any of the 7 days following the receipt of each copy provided under subsection (1), the Treasurer must –

(a) on or before the end of the 7th day, provide copies of the annual report to the clerk of that House; and

(b) within the first 7 sitting-days after that day, cause copies of the annual report to be laid before that House.
Tim Morris MP Greens Water spokesperson