IPART’s decision to approve Central Coast Council’s application for a 34 per cent water rate hike (plus inflation) is gut-wrenching for the community, and will cause serious hardship (CCN334).
Thirty-four per cent is exactly what the Council asked for, so it is difficult to understand public statements from IPART that it gave the Council less than it wanted; 19 per cent +4 per cent+4 per cent+4 per cent = 33.8 per cent after compounding.
IPART is supposed to protect customers from monopoly pricing, but once again it has succumbed to relentless Council lobbying.
Being generous with ratepayers’ money is unlikely to lead to any significant improvement in services – certainly nowhere near a 34 per cent improvement in services.
The bulk of the extra money will be swallowed up by an inefficient bureaucracy that now has even less incentive to improve its poor performance and productivity.
In fact, this Council will never reform itself and never become more efficient if it is constantly being bailed out by ratepayers.
A savvy pricing regulator would understand that.
It is cynical of IPART to claim their decision to phase in the increase over four years is evidence they listened to the community and a survey in which 89 per cent supported phasing.
They fail to mention that in the same survey 84 per cent opposed the Council’s proposal altogether, and only 2 per cent were confident they could afford it.
The phasing is also tokenistic and so front-loaded as to be pointless – a massive 19 per cent increase in July 2022 followed by much smaller increases of 4 per cent a year over the next three years.
The IPART Tribunal is appointed by State Government and has approved in full an outrageous application from a Council administrator also appointed by State Government.
A community whose feedback has once again been ignored will draw its own conclusions.
Email, Mar 21
Kevin Brooks, Bensville