TasWater has described the release of the Infrastructure Tasmania report on the State’s water and sewerage sector as seriously lacking in substance and ignoring the significant risks of increased costs and inefficiency of the proposed takeover.
TasWater Chairman Miles Hampton was joined by Acting Chief Owners’ Representative Tony Bisdee and they expressed their joint concern at the deficiencies in the report.
Mr Hampton and Cr Bisdee said the limited detail provided by the State Government on its proposal to takeover TasWater was a recipe for financial disaster and would do little, if anything, to resolve the water and sewerage problems TasWater was created to fix.
“It seems its plan is to borrow huge amounts of money to pay inflated prices for interstate contractors to rush through projects, with a complete lack of sound financial management,” they said.
“Alarmingly, the State Government believes it is somehow acceptable to offer ‘no financial constraints’ to rush TasWater’s capital program, without providing any financial modelling to show the impact on the state budget, the debt burden it will impose on TasWater’s successor, or long-term impacts on customer prices and distributions to councils.
“The extent of the Government’s financial analysis is to copy TasWater’s own plan, shift some of the funding timelines, and to create yet another new water and sewerage body, when instead it could work with us and directly inject funding into TasWater.”
Mr Hampton said given Tasmania’s size and limited labour pool, the State Government would need to lure more interstate contractors to meet demand, with the very real likelihood that costs would increase.
It is also suggested that work be outsourced to Entura and Tasmanian Irrigation, both of which already work with TasWater, although neither has the specialist workforce with the skills to build water and sewerage infrastructure.
Cr Bisdee said with so little detail available in the Infrastructure Tasmania plan, even the attached peer review from consultants Pitt & Sherry found it hard to endorse the Government’s approach, only saying it was ‘reasonable, given the information provided.’
“Pitt & Sherry warn that the Government’s plan ‘is not without risk’ and underscore the importance of planning, approvals and scoping, ‘which takes significant effort and resource prior to delivering the works,’” Cr Bisdee said.
“The State Government contends its experience and expertise in managing infrastructure will stand it in good stead to oversee the work of TasWater.
“But it has little experience with the ongoing engineering and scientific logistics of delivering drinking water and protecting the environment.”
Mr Hampton said when the government first announced its proposed takeover of TasWater, TasWater said that, at best it thought the program could be sped up by 1.5 years.
“We remain of that view. To try and do otherwise will inevitably mean rushed outcomes with sub-optimal design and wasted money.
“The biggest question of all is why is it necessary to rush and in doing so, risk hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds?
“We have always disputed the claim that Tasmania’s water and sewerage services are in crisis. For the Government to claim our services are Third World is disingenuous in the extreme, insulting and patently untrue.
“Yes, we have much to do but we have solid plans, endorsed by our key regulators and a timetable that those regulators consider acceptable.”
Mr Hampton and Cr Bisdee said if the Government plan proceeded, Tasmanians would be saddled with an unnecessary $600 million of increased debt as well as having $160 million taken from other important services.

Download TasWater background material on Infrastructure Tasmania Report …

20170728150929032.pdf
TasWater