Drawing on lengthy and in-depth customer engagement, Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) recently lodged its Price Submission 2020 with the Essential Services Commission (ESC).
Every four years GMW collaborates with customers to best determine the pricing and levels of service that best meet their needs. They then put forward the proposed fees and charges to the ESC for approval.
As part of GMW’s consultation process, they achieved significant reach through more than 1000 face-to-face conversations, 3000 online visits to Your Say, 1300 customer conversations, 36 customer forum participants, 18 customer workshops, three major customer events, 34 drop-in days, 75 Water Services Committee members, one service standard summit day and two pricing and tariff summit days.
GMW Managing Director Charmaine Quick said that “customers have been clear; ‘a fairer deal for all’ is the overwhelming message”.
“We have heard our customers call for a reliable supply, credible business, fair pricing, efficient operations, responsive services and simple systems,” Ms Quick said.
“Our pricing submission reflects this message and we have committed to delivering those.
“Customers have told us the levels of service they are prepared to accept. We have co-created a suite of new and revised standards for licensing, customer service, water delivery and complaints management.
“We are also proposing a number of changes to pricing which will result in a price decrease of about 10 per cent for most customers.
“Across all customer groups, we heard where there is a same service, there should be a same price. We also know we need to simplify our service fees. We heard everyone should pay their fair share and we agree.”
GMW is proposing to eliminate the price differential between water-users and non-water-users to deliver equitable and simpler pricing. Their proposal is for all retail customers and bulk water customers to move to system pricing – either Goulburn or Murray.
GMW already uses uniform pricing for five irrigation areas, and is now proposing uniform pricing across all six irrigation areas in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID). This will:
- Be simpler and more transparent for customers
- Create efficiencies for GMW in administering one GMID
- Support significant cost reductions in all irrigation areas
“Another exciting proposal made within our pricing submission is the need to investigate year-round gravity irrigation,” Ms Quick said.
“With 365-day gravity fed irrigation, we may attract further investment from outside the region and enhance productivity from some of the most innovative primary producers based here in the GMID.”
The ESC is seeking consultation from customers during their review process. The public is invited to download the document and comment via a link at www.gmwater.com.au/yoursay The consultation period ends on January 24, 2020.
The ESC will deliver a draft decision on our proposal in March 2020. Further consultation will be carried out from March until April.
A final price determination will be made in June 2020, for implementation from 1 July, 2020. This will set fees and charges for the next four years from 2020-2024.