Pumped District Customer Newsletter

Table of contents

Infrastructure used to monitor flows

Flow monitors allow us to receive live data on water use in the pumped district, to see where issues may be arising, and plan for maintenance activities. They also ensure that there is a shared delivery capacity amongst customers.

If you have any queries about these meters, please phone our Customer Experience Team on 1800 013 357

Pricing Submission

GMW is now in the process of developing its Pricing Submission 2024 (opens in new window) – and we want to hear from you about the service levels and values that you expect to receive from us.

Every four years, we are required to develop a Pricing Submission that outlines the prices and service levels we propose to apply for that regulatory period.

We are now working on the Pricing Submission that will apply from 1 July 2024. This submission is due to the Essential Services Commission (ESC) in September 2023, and the ESC will assess our proposal.

The ESC’s water pricing framework provides strong incentives for GMW to deliver better value for customers, and we must demonstrate how we’ve considered the services that our customers want.

Engaging with our customers is a vital part of developing our Pricing Submission – we want to hear what your priorities, needs and concerns are when it comes to the level of service you receive from us.

We’ve developed a series of surveys for our customers to have their say on, which can be found at our Your Say @ GMW website (opens in new window)

The following surveys will be of particular interest to our Pumped Irrigation customers:

• Service outcomes (opens in a new window)
• Service Standards - General (opens in a new window)
• Service Standards – Pumped Irrigation (opens in a new window)
• Billing (opens in a new window)

You don’t need to fill out all the surveys – just the ones that are relevant to you and the service you receive from GMW.

Your feedback is a vital part of drafting our Pricing Submission 2024 – we are looking forward to hearing from you!

Keeping our staff safe at work

We have a zero tolerance of aggressive behaviour both physically and verbally towards our staff.

Sometimes we are required to undertake emergency maintenance on our assets, which often falls out of hours. Please be understanding of this – we have the right to safe workplaces.

Our commitments to you:

• We will notify you if we need to enter your property out of normal operating hours.
• We will be in GMW uniform.
• Our vehicle will be identifiable - the hazard lights will be on and the vehicle will be branded.
• We will carry identification.
• We will attempt to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

If you have concerns about a person on your property, you can call GMWs emergency number on 1800 064 184 and we will confirm whether they are a GMW employee.

Supporting you during your flood recovery

We understand the impacts that floods can have on our customers’ properties and businesses.

To assist you in your flood recovery, we are continuing to replace any water entitlement records and statements free of charge, and can send to an alternative address if required. To protect customer privacy and information, we’ll need to verify identify before any documents are replaced.

If you’re experiencing temporary or long term financial difficulties, we encourage you to call our Customer Experience Team on 1800 013 357 and we will work with you to develop a plan based on your individual circumstances to help you manage payment of your account.

For more information on what support is available to you during this time, please visit our dedicated  Flood Recovery page

This webpage provides a range of information including GMW support options available as well as quick links to other useful resources including the Agriculture Victoria website and the Victorian Flood Recovery Hotline which contain important information on clean-up, financial and mental health support that is available.

Flood damaged assets

GMW continue to assess assets that were impacted by the October flood event. This includes customer drainage network and pumped assets that are associated with the pumped pipeline network.

Preliminary assessments have shown some issues with drainage diversion, however the pumped infrastructure were not impacted by the floods.

Victorian Government grants

A reminder to our customers that grants are available to landholders affected by the floods and storms across the region late last year.

Victorian Primary Producer Flood Recovery Grants of up to $75,000 and Rural Landholder Grants of up to $25,000 are available to support clean-up, relief and recovery efforts.

To find out more or to apply, visit the  Rural Finance, Industry Programs page (opens in a new window)

Seymour Alternative Farming Expo

The Seymour Alternative Farming Expo is back this year, running from 31 March – 2 April 2023.

GMW staff will be there, raising awareness about our services and providing our customers an opportunity to meet with us face to face.

Our team can help you with the latest information and updates on:

• Water trading
• Carryover and spillable water accounts
• Your delivery shares, water shares and groundwater
• Customer accounts
• Other water management issues.

With more than 400 exhibitors, the annual event showcases agricultural services and innovation. We hope to see you there.

ACCC Report

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently released its Water Monitoring Report for 2020-21.

The annual report provides information on the state of the rural water sector in the Murray–Darling Basin.

The report covers:

• trends in regulated water charges
• trends in termination, transformation, and trade in off-river networks
• cost recovery for water planning and management activities, and
• the ACCC’s compliance activities and investigations.

After three years of relative water scarcity, there was significant rainfall in 2020-21 across the Murray–Darling Basin. Substantial numbers of water access entitlement holders received their first allocation in two years. Total water delivered by infrastructure operators jumped significantly.

Some of the other key findings included:

• Wetter conditions led to increased water deliveries and allocation trade (for GMW, 102GL of water delivery rights was traded during this period)
• Higher water availability increased on-river infrastructure operator water deliveries by 86 per cent
• Gigalitres delivered: 3495GL in 2019-20 compared to 6510GL in 2020-21
• Transformation numbers fell to historically low levels
• Termination numbers were the lowest since monitoring started (GMW reported terminations fell 90 per cent to eight in 2020-21).

The Victorian Government review of WDR arrangements also recommended six outcomes and 21 actions across the GMW irrigation districts.

One of those included GMW facilitating the market in delivery shares to support asset rationalisation and imposing an embargo on the issue of WDRs.

Read the ACCC Water Monitoring Report 2020-21 on the ACCC website (opens in a new window)

New-look GMW website

We have a new and improved website!

With an enhanced look and feel and mobile-friendly design, the website has some new features which will make life easier for you. These include customer dashboards, online forms and a customer payment gateway.

Importantly, it also aims to meet AA website accessibility standards – allowing people with a range of disabilities to access and use it.

You may also notice the YourSay@GMW webpage (opens in a new window)looks a little different. While it will still be known as such, we have launched a new online engagement platform.

This will help create greater engagement opportunities with you. It will be especially useful during our Pricing Submission engagement by helping to broaden our reach and allow you the chance to provide online feedback at any time that suits you – night or day.