In evidence given to a Parliamentary committee, TasWater has confirmed that the current 10 year upgrade program can be sped up, if more money is made available.
TasWater’s Chair, Miles Hampton, was asked directly at last December’s GBE Estimates. He replied: “Would we be able to build it faster? Yes we would.”*
What this confirms is that with more resourcing, infrastructure upgrades can be completed sooner than the current ten year timeframe, which is exactly the point the Government has been making.
Under the Government’s take-over plan, infrastructure upgrades would be completed sooner because we will bring forward more funding utilising the strength of TasWater's balance sheet supported by the Government’s strong financial position.
We simply can’t allow the situation to continue where we have 25 towns on boil water or do not consume alerts, in some cases for well over a decade. We shouldn’t have to tolerate a sewerage system that spills raw sewage into our environment at more than seven times the national average. We shouldn’t have to put up with beaches being closed or seafood producers being damaged because aging infrastructure is pumping dangerous effluent into the water.
The Hodgman Government has a plan to take responsibility and fix the mess.
* Hansard, Legislative Council Government Businesses Scrutiny Committee A, Tuesday, 6 December 2016