Newsletter No.4
(School holiday edition – You go away and it all happens!)
Last Friday IPART released its final determination on water, sewerage and stormwater charges for Hunter Water. The Chairman, Dr Michael Keating, said: “Under the determination, the bill for a typical residential household (that uses 200 kL of water per annum) in 2012/13 will increase by around $220 a year (plus inflation) or 31 per cent. Dr Keating said IPART has rejected Hunter Water’s proposal which would have increased a typical household bill by $412 a year (plus inflation) or 57 per cent by 2012/13. IPART says part of the rise is to cover the proposed Tillegra Dam. “A major task for this review has been to determine prices that will recover the efficient costs of constructing the Tillegra dam. IPART has accepted Hunter Water’s argument that the drought security benefits of constructing Tillegra Dam equate to 40 per cent of the cost. This amount should be paid for by Hunter Water’s existing customers, commencing in 2009.”
You can read the full IPART report at: www.ipart.nsw.gov.au , you can see the media release at: www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/announcements.asp and click on the Hunter Water one for the 17/07/09.
The finding has prompted the state opposition to fire off a salvo:
“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. Ms Hodgkinson says the IPART ruling will rake in about an extra $221 from every Hunter household. She says since 2001, the State Labor government has used Hunter Water as a cash cow, taking $273.9 million in dividends from the authority.”
Greens NSW MP, John Kaye has put out a news release saying Hunter residents could end up paying more than $250 a year for a dam that is unnecessary. He says IPART admits that it has problems with justifying the construction of the dam to deal with drought relief, but its hands were tied by then NSW Water Minister Nathan Rees.
For the news release in full go to: www.johnkaye.org.au
The monthly meeting (15/7/09) passed a strong vote of thanks to Sally Corbett for all her work as NTDG Chair, including her successful efforts to expand the campaign and enlist the support of like-minded groups; take the fight to Hunter Water in the media and in all possible forums and keep everyone on track.
Newcastle Uni’s Steven Lucas was a very informative guest at the meeting, raising interesting points including evaporation rates on dams and on water wise management options.
Thanks to those people who donated stamps for the letters to go out to local MP’s. We’ve had a good response and could do with an ongoing supply, envelopes too. Drop them at the office any Wednesday after 10:30.
With the great media coverage we have had lately and the range of activities planned over the next two months we need to have a presence at the Newcastle Markets every Sunday providing information and encouraging people to sign letters to their local members. We have the information leaflets and the letters prepared. All you need is a card table and a couple of hours to spare, please give it some thought and contact Anne if you can help.
Anne and Barbara have 26th July covered. But we need people for August: the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. We’ll talk about September later.
Don’t forget: the firewood raffle is due to be drawn on July 29th, please sell as many tickets as possible.