Water prices punish Toowoomba ...

Letter to the Editor, The Chronicle

Water prices punish Toowoomba

8 February 2010

Yet again Kerry Shine (TC, 1/02) beats up the voters of Toowoomba who wisely said they did not want to be the 'living laboratory' for a sewage water source still not adopted by any community anywhere in the world, not even Brisbane.

Kerry Shine's State Government has spent $2 billion on the Bundamba recycled water plant but has vowed not to put the water into Wivenhoe Dam until dam levels are below 40 per cent. Why? Is it because recycled water is inferior, dangerous or just a politically unacceptable source of drinking water? He has wasted $2 billion and lectures us about money!

Kerry forgets the new Wivenhoe pipeline was originally costed at $115 million at the time the recycled water plant, capable of supplying only half the amount of water, was costed at $90 million.

The cost of water rates in Toowoomba are inflated beyond reality to set a precedence for expensive water in south-east Queensland to make the sale of the SEQ water grid to foreign corporations (privatisation) more profitable.

If Kerry Shine wants to truly represent the people of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs then he should urge the Premier and treasurer to refer Toowoomba Regional Council's monopolistic water pricing to the Queensland Competition Authority for price monitoring under s23A.

It seems strange that his Government has chosen to refer 10 SEQ Council's to the QCA for analysis and ignored the Toowoomba Region which is by far the most expensive.

Don't throw stones at the citizens Kerry, just do your job in representing their wishes.

SM
Toowoomba