Anna Bligh runs short of money for Toowoomba pipeline ...
ABC News:
Pipeline agreement 'long way off'
5 August 2009
The Mayor of the Toowoomba Regional Council says there is still a long way to go before a financial agreement is reached with the Queensland Government over a water pipeline.
The State Government has agreed to pay about $40 million of the $185 million bill for a pipeline linking Wivenhoe and Cressbrook dams in southern Queensland.
The council has increased its water access charge for ratepayers to $640 a year, expecting it will have to pay the rest.
Mayor Peter Taylor says there was no agreement reached at yesterday's meeting with Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Sterling Hinchliffe.
"We both agreed there will be further meetings required to work through this," he said.
"We still haven't agreed on the ownership of the pipeline or the alternative of some other financial arrangement with the State Government, so those negotiations are ongoing and we certainly don't have a successful outcome."
See - ABC News - Pipeline agreement 'long way off'.
If no-one has agreed who will own the pipeline nor how the pipeline will be paid for, isn't a bit premature to double the Toowoomba water connection charge ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 7:04 AM
1 Comments:
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE C—INFRASTRUCTURE AND PLANNING
16 July 2009
Mr HINCHLIFFE: I want to thank Mr Kilburn for his question and his commitment to making sure that we do not leave behind the people of Toowoomba in the face of the better condition we are in after our significant May rains in South-East Queensland. Toowoomba did not get those rains like that and that is why we are making sure that we are delivering on the Toowoomba pipeline that will help join Toowoomba to the South-East Queensland water grid.
It is also a really good outcome in terms of the jobs that are being created. About 261 jobs have
been created with the alliance employing at least one-third of its workforce locally. It is great to see those jobs for people in the valley and in Toowoomba and jobs for Queenslanders generally. We are not only delivering on our commitments to jobs but also delivering on that vital infrastructure that we need. In fact, just four months after the first pipe was laid, we are almost two-thirds complete of this phase of the construction. That is more than 23 kilometres of the 38- kilometre pipeline that has been laid.
Currently, the storage in the region’s three dams, the Cooby, the Perseverance and the Cressbrook, has fallen to 10.9 per cent. The area is currently on level 5 water restrictions, which is equivalent to Brisbane’s level 6, and prevents all outdoor domestic use. The delivery of this pipeline on
time—which it will be—will provide the opportunity for great relief to that area. Toowoomba was in danger of running out of water. We cannot let that happen to one of our great cities—in fact, the garden city, as it has become known.
There are a number of issues in relation to the ultimate pipe ownership that needs to be resolved.
I understand that the Queensland Water Commission and the Toowoomba Regional Council are continuing their negotiations around that. I in fact met with the Mayor of Toowoomba, Peter Taylor, to discuss some of those issues recently when I was inspecting the pipeline delivery. I am sure those issues will be resolved satisfactorily.
5:58 PM, August 09, 2009
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