Tony Foster, Mercury: Water row is just a smoke screen

TREASURER Peter Gutwein’s current attack on Tasmanian local government, purportedly about water and sewerage services and his so-called “crisis”, is unprecedented and all council ratepayers, indeed the entire community, would do well to question both his motive and tactics.

It is unprecedented in that if the Treasurer genuinely wanted to speed up improvement in the state’s water and sewerage infrastructure, he would work with TasWater’s owner councils, engage in cooperative discussions and face up to his responsibility to contribute State Government funds to support the upgrading of services in smaller communities and regional areas.

Instead, he has manufactured a crisis, used the media to criticise councils prior to even inviting councils to talk, threatened the takeover of TasWater, attempted to bully the local government sector and failed to provide any detail to back his claims or costings. Mr Gutwein’s combative approach is fraught with danger, with a growing number of councils and local government leaders opposed and determined to fight his unilateral takeover legally and through the Legislative Council. For the public, it will likely mean significantly increased water and sewerage charges and council rate rises, or worse still, small councils being rendered unsustainable.

So why would the Treasurer embark on such a risky and divisive course? …

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Tony Foster, Mercury