While acknowledging the ongoing financial issues at WaterNSW, NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Madeleine Hartley said the state government must be reminded of the importance of river management in keeping rural economies ticking.
“Communities across the state depend on WaterNSW to deliver and manage water, dams and related infrastructure in NSW for drinking, environmental flows and irrigation,” Dr Hartley said.
“WaterNSW manages 41 major dams and their river systems across the state. It’s a critical job that needs skilled, experienced staff who understand local conditions.
“WaterNSW also largely manages the water licensing and approvals processes, water accounting and IT systems in NSW.
“These core services are fundamental to our members’ ability to maintain compliance with our already complex water laws.”
As a result of Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) decisions, WaterNSW announced it had “significantly reduced funding and will be unable to continue delivering all its current functions in the same way”.
“To put the size of the challenge in numbers, we now need to find a further $80 million each year in cost savings,” WaterNSW said on August 4.
“We have already deferred $860 million of capital works and cut $133 million in operational costs from our business over the forward five-year period, but we need to take these additional steps to create future financial sustainability for our business, our customers and our communities.
“We are transforming our business by resetting our priorities, re-focusing on our core purpose, simplifying how we operate, and ensuring we are set up to deliver on our legal and statutory obligations.
“We will work hard to limit customer impacts throughout this period of transition — however, given the size of the funding gap, we may be unable to continue delivering our current functions, activities and projects in the same way.”
WaterNSW said it would cut its workforce by about 300 employees, including reducing the number of executives and senior managers by more than than 30 per cent.
When asked how many staff could be lost at the Deniliquin office, and if there was any risk of that office being closed as a result of the changes, a department spokesperson said it was “too early to say where the impacts would be”.
“That is still being determined by a process that only kicked off this week,” the spokesperson said.
Dr Hartley said losing more staff, on top of previous staff cuts made in 2022, “risks serious damage to service delivery and further risks the employment of regionally-based staff who know and understand the dams and rivers in their regions”.
She acknowledged her group had been a vocal critic of the current water pricing model, but asked that any staffing cuts at WaterNSW did not further disadvantage rural communities that are already dealing with Commonwealth water recovery programs, floods and drought.
“Water licence holders pay a large portion of WaterNSW’s budget and must have core services maintained,” she said.
“For most irrigators, WaterNSW staff are the first port of call for river management issues, and water licensing and approvals.
“We ask that WaterNSW prioritises this as part of their restructure and retains a firm focus on maintaining the skills and capabilities across the state that our communities and members depend on.”
