Rain fails to stop water restrictions

21st April 2009

By Anne-Louise Brown

Water, or more precisely, rain. Sick of the sight of it?

Across the Sunshine Coast rain, and lots of it, has been a stark reality in recent weeks.

Despite the deluge though, medium level water restrictions are still to come into effect on the Sunshine Coast come July 1.

“The council has been given restriction notice by the Queensland Water Commission, and the restrictions will go ahead unless they say otherwise,” said Michael Lukin, manager of planning and sustainability for Sunshine Coast Water.

“Introducing medium level restrictions on the Coast is a significant step for the commission because the Coast has never had water restrictions.”

The restrictions, will allow for a water consumption target of 200 litres a person each day, and apply to how and when residents use water outdoors. This includes watering gardens, washing vehicles, and cleaning and filling pools and spas.

Presently, Coast residents use 220 litres of water a person each day.

Compliance measures for businesses using more than one megalitre of water a year were introduced in March 30, the start of restriction rollouts across the Coast.

In Brisbane, water restrictions were relaxed from high to medium level in earlier this month after dam levels reached 50%, increasing the desired level of household consumption from 170 litres a person each day to 200 litres.

The commission had considered further relaxing restrictions, with dam levels hovering just below 60%.

However, natural resources, mines and energy minister Stephen Robertson yesterday said restrictions should stay at medium level “in case the dry times return”.


What medium level restrictions mean

Use of a single hand held hose (with twist/ trigger nozzle) for two 30 minute periods on allocated days to:

• water gardens

• wash cars

• undertake general outdoor cleaning, such as wash houses and hose outdoor areas other than paths and driveways

Use of a bucket to:

• water gardens between 4pm and 8am on any day except Monday

• clean outdoors at any time

Use of efficient irrigation systems to water gardens


What’s in a drop?

• 120 litres per eight minute shower

• 40 litres per day for a dual flush toilet

• 80 litres per load for a front loading washing machine

• 20 to 50 litres per dishwasher load

• 50 to 150 litres per bath

• 1000 litres per one hour of sprinkling

• 200 litres per 10 minutes of hosing

Electricity chiefs plan power price increases of 14.5per cent

Steven Wardill

April 22, 2009

QUEENSLAND households face massive power price rises, following a dramatic increase in the cost of erecting powerlines and poles.
An internal Ergon Energy document reveals the power provider wants up to 50 per cent more added to the price consumers pay for building and maintaining its infrastructure.

The state government-owned company estimates the higher network costs will contribute to a 14.5 per cent increase in power prices.

This is in addition to other factors driving up electricity, such as generation costs, retail costs and drought.

The predicament faced by Ergon, which has 600,000 customers outside the southeast, is likely to be echoed by its urban contemporary Energex as it maintains and expands its network.

Queensland consumers will be outraged by the extra impost, which would mean an annual hip-pocket hit of $280, after suffering successive increases since the State Government claimed industry deregulation would put downward pressure on prices.

In the document obtained by The Courier-Mail, Ergon admitted the Government would be less than impressed by the proposal to raise prices.

“Previous public statements from the shareholding minister suggests the Government will view any flow-through price increases to customers negatively,” the document said.

Energy Minister Stephen Robertson refused to comment yesterday. His spokeswoman said the minister did not have a copy of the document and it was “not official Government policy”.

Ergon chief financial officer Greg Evans also distanced the company from its own document, saying it was written last November at the height of the global financial crisis and was based on a “fall off a cliff, worst-case scenario”.

“It was never intended to be our submission to the regulator,” Mr Evans said.

“Our submission won’t look anything like this.

“This was one of many papers put to one of many meetings.”

Written by Ergon’s regulatory affairs general manager Tony Pfeiffer, the document states that, while the extent of capital works needed was not “significantly different” to past years, costs had risen considerably.

“It is clear that there will be a significant increase in Ergon Energy’s revenue requirements in the next regulatory control period,” it said.

It found the “preferred” option for Ergon’s network charges was for an increase of 48.67 per cent as well as inflation plus a further 1 per cent. Another option for a 25.67 per cent increase as well as inflation plus 10 per cent was “not recommended”.

The document said retail prices would increase by 14.46 per cent, which was “in addition to whatever increases flow from energy price changes, etc”.

Ergon also believes it will need an additional $562 million a year from the Government in community service obligation payments, which are used to ensure regional and rural consumers pay the same for power as city dwellers.

The document was written for Ergon’s board in preparation for its official pitch to the regulator for the 2010 to 2015 period.

Why the future cannot mirror the past

April 22 2009
Bill Hoffman

The Sunshine Coast Council submission to the draft SEQ regional plan is a genuine attempt to express the aspirations of a community.

The document asks the Bligh government to take a fresh approach to planning, putting the focus on both the land’s real capacity and the interests of primary stakeholders.

Much of the data necessary to inform the first of those objectives already exists.

If the state government became less fixated with population growth projections and instead focused on what its own state of the region reports have to say about the impacts of relentless growth, it could quickly find many of the answers it needs but to date has refused to acknowledge.

It is simply delusional to think you can ignore or spin away information contrary to your pre-determined objectives. But that has been the approach of Queensland Labor governments for much of the past 20 years.

Council must now maintain an argument that things should be done differently here.

There is a very good case for both the federal and state government to embrace this community’s enthusiasm for change and to use us as a model or experiment in more sustainable, climate change adaptive practices.

The University of the Sunshine Coast is producing scientists with the skills to better understand how to manage what are now unavoidable consequences. And amalgamation has brought the regional focus necessary to both protect catchments and biodiversity corridors and to implement policies to rejuvenate and restore where damage has occurred.

It is possible to build here an Australian model for communities that are more self-reliant for their water, energy and food, that better address their social needs and which live with and benefit from a robust environment with flourishing ecosystems.

It is an approach that also offers a path to a new economy with industries based on the green technologies which will be needed across the country.

Simply allowing population to grow unchecked and with no consideration for the natural elements will bring with it nothing but a continued deterioration of our quality of life while making a few wealthy in the short term and by a very narrow measure.

As can be seen by the present state of things here, unfettered growth during the past 30 years has not brought with it economic resilience.

Allowed to continue it will produce communities dependent on heavily-centralised, expensive and ultimately unsustainable infrastructure and who will demand more of ever diminishing resources. Contrary argument pushing a magic population number as the key to economic health will be as delusional as it will be self-serving.

Fundamental change will be forced on us at some point in the near future. The sooner we act, the less expensive and difficult that change will be and the more beneficial its outcomes.

These are realities that council and community groups want the state government to acknowledge and act on. Whether it has the capacity to hear the arguments or whether its ear will stay tuned to very sectional interests will be seen in the shape of the final planning document.

But council should understand there are very few compromises left to make.

All will be detrimental to the interests of primary stakeholders, those who live here and have invested their futures here in the hope that there was a better way than the one they left.

Best practice planning based on real conversations with communities would provide a model that if replicated may reduce the dysfunctionality that in the first place created the urge to shift and the resultant pressure on south east Queensland.

Otherwise we are doomed to simply repeat old mistakes.

Brisbane restrictions must stay: protestors

22nd April 2009

By Bill Hoffman


Save the Mary protesters have slammed plans to ease water restrictions in Brisbane as a revenue grab to fund the $9.2 billion water grid.

Protest organisation president Glenda Pickersgill said Queensland Water Commission’s revised water use target of 230 litres a person per day, once combined dam levels reached 60%, was difficult to understand when Brisbane residents had achieved rates of 130 litres a person per day only a few months ago.

Ms Pickersgill said the decision was all about the need to sell more water to get revenue to build the “flawed” water grid, which included a $2.5 billion outlay for the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam.

“What recent successes can commission chairwoman Elizabeth Nosworthy demonstrate in successfully leading large infrastructure related organisations?” Ms Pickersgill said.

“Why have the target so high and then revert back to old water use habits when the dams reach 60%?’’

On Sunday from 9am, Save the Mary supporters will take to the water to mark three years of activism to stop the dam.

Water craft will reach Traveston Crossing Bridge about 11am.

Bligh’s tip for rising power prices: switch off lights
By Steven Wardill

April 23, 2009


PREMIER Anna Bligh has suggested Queenslanders, who face a power price hike, should switch off their lights if they want lower electricity bills.

She insisted power prices would have risen regardless of the State Government’s decision to deregulate the industry.

A day after The Courier-Mail revealed electricity companies were preparing to push for higher power prices based on claims of skyrocketing infrastructure costs, the State Government was forced on the defensive over the issue.

Ms Bligh said rising infrastructure costs would force up the price of power but the introduction of competition into the market was ensuring consumers got better deals.

Vote now: Do you do anything at home to reduce your power bill?

“These prices would have gone up regardless of the deregulation of the retail end of the market,” she said.

“What you are seeing is competition among the retailers bring prices down lower than they would have been.”

Her comments came as it was revealed power firms were back-dating price rises for the 55,000 southeast Queensland consumers who signed market contracts.

Seven companies - AGL, Origin, Integral, Jackgreen, Energy Australia, APG and Queensland Electricity - are all believed to have contract clauses that allow them to retrospectively raise the power prices paid by their customers.

Energy Minister Stephen Robertson promised to investigate, saying “at first glance it doesn’t look good”.

“My department is looking at that issue as to whether either the electricity code should be changed or whether we should go down the path of legislative amendment,” he said.

Asked whether the downward pressure on prices promised under deregulation would ever materialise, Ms Bligh said if Queenslanders wanted to lower their power bills they should stop using more electricity than they needed.

“The best advice that I can give Queenslanders is to get in touch with our ClimateSmart Homes scheme that will bring an electrician to your house and for the cost of $50 you will get nearly $250 worth of equipment, including energy efficient bulbs, to help you reduce, in some cases up to a third, your electricity bills,” she said.

However, Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the Government had ripped out $3.5 billion in dividends from Energex and Ergon over the past two years and this was driving up power prices as the companies played catch-up with infrastructure.