Benjamin Price, HIA Executive Director, said the Committee will examine what TasWater's financial settings and infrastructure pipeline mean for Tasmania meeting its National Housing Accord targets.

"This is the right inquiry at the right time. Putting housing supply front and centre means Parliament has recognised that TasWater's decisions are housing decisions.

"TasWater's own owner representative told Parliament there is land zoned for houses with no sewer to connect it to."

Mr Price said the Committee was right to name TasWater's recent reversal on vacant lots specifically.

"We're the worst performing state in the country against the National Housing Accord and TasWater's answer is to charge more on land before a home is even built. That is tone-deaf and it is indefensible to the Tasmanian community.

"A fee on an empty block doesn't build another home. It just makes the block more expensive, and that lands in the price of the house.

"These cost burdens are eventually borne by the homeowner, right at a time when Tasmanians can least afford it."

Mr Price said examining dividends, capital investment and pricing together was the right approach.

"We're being told the network is falling apart, yet at the same time watching millions go back to councils as dividends. All while TasWater are trying to make consumers pay more.

"Nobody is arguing TasWater shouldn't invest in infrastructure. We are arguing that Tasmanians trying to buy a home shouldn't be the ones paying for it."

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