The Liberal Government’s plan to fix Tasmania’s failing water and sewerage infrastructure sooner will encourage economic investment and create jobs.
A key part of our plan is to accelerate TasWater’s 10-year infrastructure program, completing it within five years of taking over TasWater, while keeping prices down.
The Westbury sewerage and wastewater plant is a prime example of what can be achieved.
The plant has a history of being non-compliant with Environmental Regulatory Authority discharge limits and does not have the capacity to meet the needs of the Valley Central Industrial precinct, adjacent to the town.
This precinct could see new projects occur that could unlock potentially hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of investments, creating more jobs in Tasmania – the Liberal Government’s number one priority.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of urgency on behalf of TasWater in upgrading the Westbury plant, which puts at risk this investment.
Under TasWater’s program, work is due to start in the next financial year but will not be completed for five years.
Our plan will bring the completion date forward to just two years.
This will deliver improved regulatory compliance three years ahead of the scheduled TasWater plan, ensuring better environmental outcomes sooner for Quamby Brook, which flows into the Meander River.
Importantly, under our plan we will work with industry to ensure that the infrastructure has the required capacity to meet the needs of the developments planned at the Valley Centre Industrial precinct.
Our commitment to this project in particular will encourage investment and help to create jobs in regional Tasmania.
As the Infrastructure Tasmania report released earlier this week demonstrates, the Liberal Government will get the job done faster and we will ensure customers will pay less.