Water bills spark confusion
MICHAEL STEDMAN
September 23, 2009 02:00am
HOMEOWNERS statewide are bracing for a nasty surprise in their letterboxes.
Water and sewerage bills, charging residents for services previously built into council rates, have started to arrive.
It appears reductions in council rates this financial year will not be enough to compensate for the new charges, which in Brighton are in excess of $600.
The bills have led to confusion, with some residents threatening to take the new water and sewerage corporations to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission because they do not know how the new costs have been calculated.
Liberal MP Peter Gutwein said the State Government had botched its reforms.
"These reforms from day one have been implemented poorly, communicated poorly and the ultimate test now is that people are receiving their bills and struggling to even understand them," Mr Gutwein said.
Residents in council areas with water meters, such as Brighton and Sorell, will get separate bills based on the amount of water used but bills in other areas, such as Glenorchy and Hobart, will be based on agreed land value.
There is concern it could lead to wildly different charges.
Southern Water chief executive Danny Sutton said there had been no change in the way that water use was calculated.
"The 2009-10 accounts are calculated using the same method previously used by each of the councils to ensure fairness and consistency," Mr Sutton said.
He said there were plans to install meters statewide.
"As part of the water and sewerage reform process, the State Government is examining the issue of water meters and a timetable for installing meters is yet to be established," he said.
Greens MP Tim Morris said the bills were another example of the Government slugging disadvantaged Tasmanians.
He said the recently won single pension increase of $70.83 a fortnight would be eroded by the water and sewerage costs, which increased by 10 per cent this year and will rise by a further 10 per cent next year.
"Even though Brighton has received a relatively small increase, what we are really seeing out of these reforms is a real spike for cost increases under Labor," Mr Morris said.
"This is people having to pay for Bartlett's so-called reforms."
Pensioners will receive a $130 remission on their bills.
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