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THE irony is impossible to ignore. The State Government spends nearly $7 billion drought-proofing southeast Queensland just in time for one of the wettest summers on record. The bill would have been even higher except for the Federal Government's veto of the Traveston Dam proposal.
But still, is it money well spent? The short answer is "no". That's not to say we don't need a secure supply of water in southeast Queensland or insurance against the day the next drought arrives, which it inevitably will, or that building new water infrastructure wasn't always going to be expensive. But it is to say that virtually every step of a process that began back in 2006, when then-premier Peter Beattie realised he had to do something dramatic to address the previously unthinkable prospect of southeast Queensland running out of water, has been marked by a seeming indifference to the concept of value for money.
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WATER bosses are pocketing $100,000 salary increases as Queenslanders are hit with soaring utility bills.
Bosses at the state water bodies have been criticised over their "excessive" pay rises while consumers are being gouged every time they turn on a tap.
The best rain in a decade has ended the drought and filled the state's dams, but critics say the State Government reforms aimed at securing future water supplies have created a bureaucratic monster - with a financial appetite to match.
Now households are paying the price, with water bill increases of up to $300 a year to pay for the army of new water administrators.
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SOUTH-EAST Queensland households are being hit with massive water bill hikes to pay off a dam that won't be built.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the Bligh Government has failed to revise down the 10-year "price path" for bulk water costs despite last year's scuttling of the $1.6 billion Traveston Dam.
Households will still be slugged with escalating water costs, outlined in 2008, to pay off the Government's $9 billion water grid, even though it is now a $7 billion grid.
The increase in peak bulk water prices, which will hit $2755 per megalitre in 2017/18, would be 17.8 per cent lower if the dam was excluded.
However, the Government will instead pocket the extra cash from the higher prices, which are compounding the pressure on family budgets already squeezed by higher power, rates, petrol and mortgage payments.
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RATEPAYERS in southeast Queensland face water charges of about $90 a month because of "botched" reforms to the state's water grid.
And the massive financial burden on councils is likely to mean ratepayers will continue to suffer big water hikes for years to come.
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A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into the troubled Gold Coast desalination plant has been quietly shelved. But with the $1.2 billion plant shut down for at least three months for the latest in a series of repairs, there are now calls for the probe to be reopened.
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THE trouble-plagued Gold Coast desalination plant has again been shut down for repairs - this time for at least three months. What was supposed to be the showpiece of the State Government's $9 billion southeast Queensland water grid has been beset with problems including rusting pipes, cracking concrete and faulty valves, and has been shut down at least twice since being completed in 2008. See the full Courier-Mail story here.
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In a significant backdown, the Government will begin talks with councils on axing plans to have the region's 10 water businesses, with about $10 billion in assets, folded into a massive company that was due for launch in July 2010. The Government is considering other ways of running the region's water grid in a bid to save costs on what has become a hugely expensive and complicated project. See the full story
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RUSTING in sea water, the $1.2 billion Gold Coast desalination plant required repairs soon after it opened. The showpiece of a Queensland government strategy to drought-proof the state's booming southeast, the project has been plagued by so many construction flaws and unscheduled shut-downs that the government is still refusing to take possession from the contractors who built it. See the full article in The Australian.
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QUEENSLAND'S water strategy (and we use that term very loosely) is in tatters. In policy terms it is gripped by drought.
The Traveston Dam debacle and Premier Anna Bligh's subsequent knee-jerk announcement of yet more power-hungry desalination plants to fill the water supply gap are illustrative of the endemic failings of our incumbent government. Four words come to mind: mismanagement, panic, waste and blame-shifting. See the full Courier-Mail article.
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JUST two months after the taps were finally turned on, the State Government's $1.2 billion desalination plant will be shut down for five weeks for repairs.
The plant at Tugun on the Gold Coast has been besieged with problems, and is still months away from being officially handed over to Water Secure - the government body that will own and run it.
Infrastructure and Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe confirmed the plant will shut down from late this month for "scheduled repair work", and dismissed claims it is an expensive white elephant. See the full story here...
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