A monopoly, which is wholly owned by the Government of which Mr Anderson is a member, is price gouging customers in the Peel Valley. 

Regardless of the spin that members of the Government may wish to put on it, a monopoly that adopts the policy of increasing water charges in one valley until customers in that valley cannot afford to pay and are forced to surrender their licence, is price gouging.

During the time that he has been our Local Member, Mr Anderson and his Government have allowed the charges in the Peel Valley to increase from $28.29 to the proposed massive $54.97 per ML. Meanwhile, the proposed charges in the other valleys in the Murray Darling Basin in NSW are: Murray $2.00, Murrumbidgee $3.24, Border Rivers $5.28, Gwydir $11.00 Macquarie $11.98, Namoi $18.12 and Lachlan $18.20 per ML. The average usage charge of all valleys in the Murray Darling Basin (other than the Peel) is $8.27 per ML.

The two previous proposed ‘solutions’ that Mr Anderson referred to – namely temporarily trading water from Chaffey Dam to the Namoi Valley, and substantially increasing the fixed costs for Tamworth Regional Council (and therefore further increasing the water charges for all Tamworth ratepayers – were both doomed to fail from the outset because they were not well thought out, and the views of stakeholders were not considered before they were implemented.

Neither does the solution lie with the possible upgrade of Dungowan Dam, because in practice that is probably at least 15 years away – (if it ever happens). The residents, irrigators and businesses in the Tamworth region need a proper solution NOW.

The excessive and inequitable water usage charges in the Peel Valley are a consequence of a flawed pricing policy adopted by successive Governments. Both IPART and the ACCC have rejected the various solutions that have been proposed by the irrigators, so the ball is squarely in the Government’s court to amend their pricing policy because it clearly has an inequitable impact on the Peel Valley.

Mr Anderson is correct when he says that the high price in the Peel Valley is crippling the irrigation industry. All that the irrigators in the Peel Valley have ever sought is a fair go, and at present we are no closer to equitable water pricing than we were when Mr Anderson was elected. 

Mr Anderson, please now stand up and take genuine action on behalf of the residents, businesses and irrigators in the Tamworth region to rectify this (Government-created) problem rather than continually restating more of the same old Government waffle.

Ildu Monticone

Dungowan

Peel Valley irrigator