The Chief Representative of the Council Owners of TasWater Mayor David Downie says Mr Gutwein is blaming Councils when he should be helping.

Mr Downie said that for two years Mayor Tony Foster who was then Chief Owners Representative, and the Chairman of TasWater Miles Hampton had sought to persuade the State Government to help it address the infrastructure shortcomings.

In doing so Mayor Foster and Mr Hampton openly shared with the State Government the poor state of our infrastructure.

The Owners told the State Government of the need to work together on a long term funding plan to fix the state’s water and sewerage infrastructure.

“As Owners, we asked the State Government to commit to $10m pa for ten years and that they help us in our efforts to secure $30m pa for ten years from the Federal Government.“

“The State Government declined to assist us saying that it had no money and it also failed to make us the State Government’s number one priority for funding from the Federal Government in the lead up to the most recent Federal Election.”

“Put simply, the State Government ignored our pleas for help and now they say we are not moving fast enough… some might say this seems more than a little disingenuous.”

Subsequently, in August last year TasWater announced a ten-year, $1.5bn fully funded plan to address the infrastructure shortcomings.

The plan did not rely on any assistance from State or Federal Government.

The plan imposed significant pain on Councils by reducing distributions to them by more than $150m over ten years, while TasWater itself committed to secure further operational savings of $15m pa.

“ If TasWater were to stop paying distributions to Councils today as Mr Gutwein is proposing, the timeframe to address the infrastructure shortcomings will reduce from 10 years to 8.5 years.

But to achieve this reduction in timeframe the community will bear a significant cost.”

The Tasmanian Audit Office has reported that in 2015-16 Councils generated a combined net underlying surplus of $11m.

If we take away $30m that Councils received from TasWater, in 2015/16 the net deficit would have been $19m.

In this circumstance the Councils would have either had to substantially reduce services or increase rates, or a combination thereof.

The Treasurer is seeking to impose significant pain on the broader community… simply to bring forward the completion of the capital program by 1.5 years.

The indignation that Mr Gutwein seems to be bringing to this issue suggests there is in reality another agenda.

Perhaps it is to force Council amalgamations and make TasWater pay for the relocation of the Macquarie Point treatment plant through in effect the redirection of council distributions.
David Downie Mayor Northern Midlands Council Chief Owners Representative TasWater