Councils are firm in the belief that local government ownership of TasWater is in the best interests of all Tasmanians and they have extremely strong reasons to retain the current model.
Brighton Mayor Tony Foster said in the current impasse, local government was not fighting the State Government. Rather, it was protecting an asset it owns on behalf of ratepayers.
He said the primary reason to maintain the current ownership structure was that councils were best-placed to ensure that TasWater operated in the best interests of the entire Tasmanian community and not to suit any political agenda.
Cr Foster said distributions from TasWater were spread throughout the State and funded
essential community services such as local roads and footpaths, parks, recreation facilities and community health.
“This is an important consideration and even if the current Treasurer (or future Treasurers) keeps his word to provide the promised distributions they will amount to only 50 percent of what councils will receive under the current ownership.
“As well, Councils now have real influence in TasWater’s decision-making. Any council can have direct access to the Chairman and CEO of TasWater and the shareholders’ letter of expectation sets very clear parameters for the operation of the business.
“TasWater’s infrastructure development is determined on the basis of need and sound and professional engineering principles.
“This would not necessarily be the case with a Government Business Enterprise (GBE) as proposed by the Treasurer.
“Any change would inevitably lead to pork barrelling that would come from the Treasurer or Minister controlling a water and sewerage GBE and its balance sheet.
“And Tasmanians are well-aware of this Government’s reputation for raiding the balance sheets of its GBEs.
Cr Foster said it was ironic the Treasurer was criticising local government for spending a small amount of ratepayers’ funds to protect its assets when he was spending considerably more taxpayers’ money to take over these assets.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for councils to work with a Minister who is so clearly intransigent in his desire to take over TasWater, a desire that has now been effectively destroyed by legal argument.
“With his ability to achieve the takeover now under serious legal doubt, the Treasurer should give an honest answer about why he wants to take control of TasWater. If he did, perhaps there could be a genuine and mature discussion about the future of water and sewerage infrastructure in the State and a cooperative approach adopted.
“However, I’m afraid that Mr Gutwein’s current posturing, his misinformation and false criticisms mean that the climate is far from ideal to allow this to happen.
Brighton Mayor Tony Foster
