WBBROC chair and Gympie Mayor Mick Curran

February 22, 2020

The Wide Bay Burnett Regional Organisation of Councils (WBBROC) has expressed concerns over proposed rises in irrigation water charges.

WBBROC is an umbrella body whose members include the South Burnett, Cherbourg, Gympie and North Burnett councils as well as Bundaberg and the Fraser Coast.

The organisation was commenting on the results of a recent review by the Queensland Competition Authority which recommended large increases in irrigation water prices.

For irrigators on the Barker-Barambah scheme, the proposed rises were up to 116 per cent in fixed access charges and up to 137 per cent for volumetric charges.

And in some schemes, irrigators would have to pay these steep increases regardless of any water being allocated.

WBBROC made several submissions to the QCA during the review, requesting the size and rate of any increases reflect the capacity of irrigators to pay.

Gympie mayor Mick Curran, who is chairman of WBBROC, said it was unreasonable to expect irrigators to pay increases of this size in a year when incomes had been severely impacted by drought.

He said the QCA has ignored WBBROC’s submissions seeking a gentle price path over time.

South Burnett mayor Keith Campbell added his support to Mayor Curran’s comments, saying the region was dependent on a vibrant irrigation sector and increases of this size significantly added to the pain of higher electricity prices and low farm incomes.

WBBROC has written to Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham outlining its frustration with the excessive price increases recommended.

The organisation said many of the increases were not within the capacity of irrigators, industries and regional communities to pay.

The WBBROC mayors also conveyed concerns from irrigators that there was a potential for even greater price increases in future, fearing the costs of making Paradise Dam safe would be passed on.

Cr Curran said Paradise Dam was one of the newest dams in Queensland. The fact that there were major issues in its initial construction was the responsibility of the Queensland Government. Therefore, the costs of making the dam safe, need to be borne by the State Government and not passed on to end-users.

Related articles:


 

One Response to "Irrigation Charges ‘Unreasonable’"

  1. Blimey, I’m almost glad I am out of it now. The ever-increasing costs to the irrigator will insure that ultimately only the highest returning crops will be grown. This is NOT good as a region needs much diversity of cropping which leads to diversity of employment etc. within a given community. This is being discouraged by the silliness of Minister Dr Anthony Lynham who is ever treating the irrigator as the silly “cash cow”. Can’t they see it?? On many things that Lynham has done he has shown that maybe he is not the sharpest tool in the shed!

    Give this a thought folks, the BP Dam has brought great benefit to the local area. The irrigators are mostly at home working their butts off to pay for all the high fees while the rest are fishing, camping boating and generally having a good time at almost no cost except a licence. On the fairness stakes, how good is that, eh?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.