New minister to visit - Council hopes for solution on water pricing

Niall Blair, who has replaced Barwon MP Kevin Humphries in the role, will travel to Tamworth in the coming weeks to meet with council representatives.

Water users in the Peel Valley, including residents, irrigators and businesses, pay about 20 times more for a megalitre of raw water than their counterparts in the state’s south.

The discrepancy not only places a significant burden on existing water-intensive industries, but discourages others from establishing operations in the valley.

Before the March election, council ranked obtaining a commitment from whichever party won power to finding a solution as one of its top 10 priorities.

Tamworth deputy mayor Russell Webb said Mr Blair was aware of the issue and had volunteered to come to Tamworth to meet with key stakeholders.

“At the moment, we have a situation where our water is so much dearer than the other valleys that it is just fundamentally unfair,” he said.

“We do have businesses here, such as abattoirs, that are high water users and they are very aware they could pay a lot less for water if they were in another valley.”

Councillor Webb said every possible solution would be put on the table in a bid to devise a pricing system that provided locals with a “fair and reasonable” outcome.

However, he said council’s fervent wish for price parity right across the state’s valleys was probably unlikely.

“I believe the best outcome is for postage stamp pricing, where we all pay the same, but I’m a realist and accept that is probably not going to happen,” he said.

“We need to reconsider what has been done in the past and look to the future, with new alternatives and maybe a combination of solutions might actually form an acceptable outcome.”