South Australia's government has "no interest" in bringing down water prices and has obstructed reform efforts, the state's former independent regulator says.
The claims are included in a resignation letter from former Essential Services Commission of SA (ESCOSA) chief executive Paul Kerin, who stepped down shortly after the March state election.
In the letter, published on Tuesday by the Adelaide Advertiser, Dr Kerin said he was not prepared to "waste the next four years" of his life serving the re-elected Labor government.
"The government and its senior bureaucrats have clearly demonstrated that they have no interest in genuine reform, nor in serving the long-term interests of consumers," he wrote.
"Indeed, they have stymied all efforts on those fronts at every turn."
ESCOSA has powers to set the maximum revenue that can be recovered from drinking water and sewerage customers but the state government is responsible for setting supply and usage prices.
Dr Kerin said political considerations had played no part in his resignation because he had been a Labor voter most of his life.
"However, having seen that government from the inside, I have no appetite to deal with it for another four years," he wrote.
Opposition leader Steven Marshall said the letter proved the government had no interest in water pricing reform.
"We've got the highest water prices in the nation by a long way," he told ABC radio.
"(We've had) a 236 per cent increase in water prices under Labor. It's five or six times inflation."
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said the independent regulator was not an elected official and it was up to the government to guide policy reforms.
"We all want to have cheaper water prices (but) the reality is that they're not in the purview of just one person," Mr Koutsantonis told ABC radio.
"What (Dr Kerin) wanted to do was to be the policy-maker. He wanted to be the owner of the asset, to determine policy and then to regulate.
"That power should never be held in one office."
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