Growing discontent
Both Newcastle and Dungog residents combined in a pointed protest against the Tillegra Dam proposal with costs for the project growing to near $500 million and likely to grow more. Disgruntled Hunter Water rate payers and affected residents of the Williams River Valley built a mock $500M wall outside Hunter Water headquarters in Newcastle. You can view an NBN TV video of the protest here.
Apart from all the negative media coverage in Newcastle and Sydney, individuals and groups are standing up to the poor planning decisions of this State Labor government and an ever increasing debt burden imposed by them on rate and tax payers.
IPART has deferred most of the cost of the proposed Tillegra Dam because it recognises current ratepayers don’t need it. Hunter households will face a debt that can only travel skywards in the future. The proposed dam has already more than doubled in estimated cost (and still hasn’t been finally costed!). Future water bills must cover the ever increasing debt of the dam. This is a debt that the Hunter doesn’t want or need.
Shadow Minister for Natural Resource Management, Katrina Hodgkinson, said State Labor’s wrong priorities mean that Hunter Water customers will have to pay massive water increases to fund the Tillegra Dam that is not necessary and has not yet received environmental approval. “The IPART determination of water prices in the Hunter, released today, will see households in the region facing massive hikes in the cost of water, sewerage and stormwater charges brought about by State Labor’s incompetence and failure to save for future infrastructure needs,” Katrina Hodgkinson said. Read the full article.
Hunter residents could end up paying more than $250 a year for a dam that is unnecessary, according to Greens NSW MP Dr John Kaye. Commenting on independent pricing regulator IPART’s final price determination for Hunter Water, Dr Kaye said: “If PART’s prediction for population growth in the Lower Hunter does not eventuate, Newcastle residents will face crippling water bills over the next three decades and beyond to pay for Tillegra Dam.” Read the full article.
The recent website opinion poll by the Dungog Chamber of Commerce found strong opposition. The results are no longer on the site, but in late July about 89 percent of respondents said the project going ahead was the worst thing that could happen to the Dungog shire.
This government instills a total lack of confidence!