Latest Update
16 July 2008
Water and Sewerage Reform Important Update
Background
Burnie City Council has actively campaigned during the last year against the State Government’s proposed Water and Sewerage Reform. Council firmly believes that the reform will cost Burnie residents dearly and that the reform, while fixing much needed infrastructure in some parts of the State, punishes those areas, such as Burnie, which have responsibly met their obligations.
The campaign has involved:
- Burnie Community News articles
- Keep Burnie Water website
- Keep Burnie Waterbrochure
- Submissions to all State Government Discussion Papers
- Representations to the Premier and Treasurer
- Council modelling and presentation of the reform’s financial impacts
Unfortunately, Local Government as a whole did not resist the reform agenda, with in fact some Council’s welcoming it. It is therefore not surprising that the Reform has been pursued with State Government and Local Government accepting a compromise model of Local Government owned Regional Corporations.
New Corporations Established
On 16 June 2008 the Water and Sewerage Corporations Bill 2008 was proclaimed and became law. This State Government Act establishes three regional Water and Sewerage Corporations in the State, one being in the North West and owned by the nine councils of the region. It also establishes a Common Service Corporation to deliver corporate services such as payroll, human resources, information technology, billing, financial and accounting services.
The Corporations will have separate Boards, although out of the six directors on the North Western Corporation, four including the chairperson will be common to all three Regional Corporations. Each Board will report to three Owner Representatives, who are accountable to State Parliament and the owner councils.
The Corporations are expected to commence in January 2009, with the transfer of Council’s water and sewerage assets, rights, liabilities and employees to take effect on 1 July 2009.
New Industry Regulations
The Water and Sewerage Industry Bill 2008 has also been passed by the State Parliament and provides a more rigorous framework for regulating the water and sewerage sector.
The framework is modelled on the energy sector and will provide a mechanism for determining the future price of services. The first pricing determination under this mechanism is scheduled to occur in mid 2011.
Transition
Now that the Reform is a reality, Burnie City Council will work co-operatively to ensure a smooth as possible transition and to continue to represent the interests of the Burnie community.
The move of assets, people and service delivery from Councils and Bulk Water Authorities to the new Regional Corporations is a complex undertaking and Burnie City Council will commit additional resources to meet the target required dates (refer below).
Council will continue to communicate progress to residents and businesses during the transition process.
Local Government Sustainability
The State Government claims that the Reform will improve Local Government viability as the new Regional Corporations are owned by councils and will therefore pay dividends back to councils. However, given the new infrastructure requirements in some other areas, it is unclear what level of dividends, if any, will be returned, unless there are significant price increases.
For Burnie City Council it continues to be unacceptable that the viability of councils should be paid for by large increases in the price of water and sewerage services. Council will therefore continue to campaign for nodal or system based pricing to preserve the relatively low cost services enjoyed by Burnie residents.
Summary
Burnie City Council has an enviable record in the provision of water and sewerage services to its community ensuring that they are modern, compliant and cost effective. Council expects itself and the Burnie community to be adversely effected by the mandated reforms but will work diligently to provide the best value outcome for Burnie during the transition process.
Council will continue to lobby for:
A fair share of equity in the new North Western Regional Water and Sewerage Corporation
Nodal or system based pricing for water services
Further Information
The following websites provide progressively updated information:
