Looking back at 2005-6 - Why the Toowoomba Recycled Water Proposal Failed

Toowoomba is no doubt a test case for what not to do in this area.  Most likely doomed from the start with local, state and federal politicians some of the main players who caused its failure.

As examples:

- Toowoomba City Council hiding the NWC funding application from ratepayer view until the CEO gave the green light on his way out the door to Logan City Council.  The NWC application revealed how misleading Toowoomba City Council had been.   No wonder they wanted it kept secret.

- Premier Beattie admitting on the 6pm news that Toowoomba was an experiment but that he wouldn't drink it.  (Beattie later spent millions of taxpayers' funds on Chinese-made 3 minute shower timers which didn't work.)

- Minister (at the time) Turnbull saying there would be no money for other options.  Politicians trying to dictate what others do from the comfort of their Vaucluse mansions is never going to succeed.

- The State government threatening legal action against a number of opponents which was completely beyond State powers.

- The polarising Mayor's "drink it or you can buy bottled water" approach to community engagement which did far more damage to the recycled water industry than could ever have been imagined.

- Councillors threatening violence against opponents.  (Note: never leave voice messages.)

- Toowoomba City Council's "independent" advisors hiding their links to the preferred international contractor.

- Toowoomba City Council outsourcing the PR campaign without vetting the materials used from Singapore.  Councillors refusing to attend meetings and hoping to rely on their outsourced PR was short-sighted.

- Allegations of corruption in preferred contractor dealings.  The Cleveland case lent credibility to these allegations.

- Suspect costings - 4 plants in Brisbane cost $1.2b but Toowoomba's would only cost $70m?  The $70m figure was back of the envelope stuff and, even in 2006, it was known that the project would have cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars outside of Budget.

- Not a drought solution - if the project went ahead, under the NWC application, residents were still required to cut their already restricted water consumption by an extra 20%.

- The project at best deferred the need for a new water source - it did not drought-proof Toowoomba.   Toowoomba City Council proclaimed the project was the silver bullet for water issues. It was not.

- Community engagement involves open and transparent discussions with all stakeholders.  The Toowoomba example was characterised by politicians at all levels of government doing the opposite in the hope that PR spin would suffice.   It wasn't.

- Free pizza, balloons and movie tickets are not a substitute for community engagement.

- In general, when governments hide information from stakeholders and use suspect advisors to promote an agenda, it begs further enquiry.  The deficiencies of the Toowoomba proposal were sufficient reasons for it to be killed off and so it was. 

 

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