How lucky can a water diviner be?
Or why Hunter Water Corp. doesn’t act in the interests of its customers
HWC is in a bind – it is at the mercy of the weather/climate patterns, the whim of political priorities, and the need to operate as a responsible corporate entity (i.e. make a profit and provide a return to its shareholder, the NSW state government). So what is a good corporation to do? Use spin (Why Tillegra Now? published after a political announcement), obfuscation (trying to stop freedom of information documents), and denial of community involvement (total discregard for local community and lack of community involvement in proper civil society and democratic processes). Nothing short of acting like a shamman or fake rainmaker. It is acting in its own interests. How can it do this? A few simple points:
- it’s a monopoly supplier
- it’s “shareholder”, is also the regulator, planner and is controlled by a corrupt NSW State Labor party
- the state government’s announcement out of the blue to dam the Williams River at Tillegra handed HWC a golden egg
- it tells lies about the alternatives (eg the real cost comparison between an environmentally damaging dam and the alternatives, especially an integrated demand management approach)
- and for obvious reasons denies its customers the chance to downsize their water bill by using alternatives by saying that they are not the answer
- is charging its existing customers now for future infrastructure and water they neither need nor want