Flood-hit farmers on the North Coast and Hunter Valley are facing a 15.8% increase in water bills for government services under IPART's second draft rural water pricing determination.
IPART this week proposed to increase fees for the Water Administration Ministerial Corporation (WAMC)* component of rural water bills by up to 5% plus CPI a year for about 16,000 small, medium and large water licence holders.
Licence holders on regulated and unregulated rivers on the North Coast, South Coast and Hunter Valley face the highest cumulative hike of 15.8 per cent by 2028, followed by the inland Murrumbidgee valley up to 15.3% and the Lachlan and Macquarie valleys up to 15%.
For a typical farmer with a 500 megalitre licence on the flood-hit North Coast, that means paying up to $254 more each year, and $143 more in the flood-hit Hunter Valley.
"The prospect of paying hundreds of dollars a year more hurts when you've just been through the trauma of watching your land, livestock, fencing and equipment swept away in the floods," said NSWIC CEO Claire Miller.
"Farmers will have minimal financial capacity to absorb increases in government fees when they are dealing with the aftermath of this natural disaster and trying to rebuild."
Ms Miller said while IPART listened to farmers' affordability concerns about WAMC's initial proposal to increase fees by 15% plus CPI each year, its draft determination did not address the drivers forcing annual fee increases above CPI.
"Our members feel that despite paying for policy reforms in metering, compliance and other areas over many years, they are still not seeing the promised efficiency dividends to reduce government costs and therefore fees.
"Instead, more regulations and activities keep being added, driving expenditure progressively higher over the last four years than IPART allowed. It culminated in WAMC spending $174.6 million in 2024-25 or 134% more than IPART allowed in its 2021 determination.
"We also have reservations about the new two-tiered fee model WAMC proposed and IPART accepted, that replaces the flat 2.5 per cent a year increases for all water licence holders regardless of size in previous determinations.
"We need to see the Government maintain budget discipline this time to hold WAMC expenditure at the IPART-allowed $390 million to 2028 through streamlining their water policies, management and services.
"The WaterNSW/WAMC shareholding ministers in Treasury and Finance must also undertake an overhaul to replace the current rural price structure with one that delivers cost-effective and efficient services to water users, so they can keep growing food and fibre."
*WAMC is a statutory body made up of WaterNSW, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR). It delivers water planning, licensing and compliance services.
