Seqwater bulk water prices 2015–18

We released a draft report on bulk water prices, for the 11 council areas in south east Queensland, for 2015-18.

We recommended a draft common price of $2.77/kilolitre (kL) in 2017–18 (for councils other than Redland, Sunshine Coast and Noosa). This common price is 14%, or $0.45, lower than the ‘indicative’ common price announced by the government in 2013 ($3.22/kL).

The Treasurer and Minister for Trade asked us to investigate pricing practices relating to the monopoly business activity of bulk water supply by Seqwater. The objective of the review was to recommend bulk water prices for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2018.

This was the first review of Seqwater’s bulk water prices we conducted since Seqwater became a consolidated bulk water entity in January 2013.

Seqwater is responsible for providing bulk urban and industrial water supply and irrigation supply services in SEQ. Services provided to irrigation customers, power stations and Toowoomba are not the subject of this review.

The review made recommendations on, a range of matters, including:

• prices for the remaining three years of the 10 year bulk water price path
• the prudency and efficiency of capital and operating expenditure.

A draft report was submitted to the Queensland Government on 28 November 2014. A final report was provided by 31 March 2015.