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Liberals slam water bungle

Posted on July 26, 2008, 2:02pm

The State Opposition has rejected Water Minister Karlene Maywald’s plan to make taxpayers bear the burden of fixing her water billing bungle.

Ms Maywald has said taxpayers will wear the administrative cost of refunding the overcharged amounts.

“What she is telling taxpayers is that they get their refund which they will lose when costs go up next year to compensate and then they will also cop the cost of this robbing Peter to pay Paul exercise,” State Liberal Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said.

“The incompetence and sheer bloody-minded arrogance of this Government continues,” he said.

Mr Hamilton-Smith has proposed a two-step process where the cost would be borne by the Cabinet Ministers who must take the collective blame for missing the details of the new three-tier pricing system.

  • Customers billed and overcharged after July 1 for water used prior to that date should have their bills corrected and re-issued.
  • Ministerial offices must take a funding cut equivalent to the administrative cost of fixing the debacle.

“Ministerial staffing levels have increased almost two-fold since the Rann Government came to office and now number more than 300,” he said.

“That’s been matched by an increasing number of ministerial bungles, so we aren’t seeing any more efficient Government.

“It’s time Ministers took some personal pain and responsibility for their actions and wore a reduction in staffing and resource allocations for their offices.”

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