GMW Pricing Submission 2020-2024

We have now submitted our Pricing Submission 2020-2024 to the Essential Services Commission (ESC) – download a copy of our submission, and give your feedback at the Engage Victoria website.

The ESC regulates the pricing of water services for consumers within Victoria. This year, the ESC will approve the maximum prices and service levels for GMW for four years, until 30 June 2024.

The ESC will assess our proposals against a legal framework established by the Commonwealth Government, and will seek feedback from customers and stakeholders at each stage of the price review to inform their decision making.

Give your feedback

You can read our Pricing Submission at the Engage Victoria website, and also give your feedback on our proposals. 

A fairer deal for all 

We asked you – our customers – to provide feedback on our A fairer deal for all document before we submitted our full Pricing Submission to the ESC in November.

This was your opportunity to have a say on the fees and charges we’ve drafted for the next four years from 2020-2024.

A fairer deal for all was based on extensive engagement with you through workshops, drop-in sessions, summit meetings and thousands of customer conversations over the past two years.

You have been clear in what you want. A fairer deal for all is the overwhelming message. We have heard you and we’ve developed proposals that will:

• Provide price reductions for almost all our customers
• Drive efficiencies and cost reductions (without impacting on your level of service)
• Reprioritise expenditure into the areas that provide you with the best value for money

• Reform your tariffs to be simpler and more equitable.

Thank you for taking the time to get involved. We know deciding on what’s fair and equitable in our prices is much easier when we’re collaborating with you. We firmly believe working together will help us achieve better outcomes for you our customers, our business and our region.

The outcomes our customers need

Customers have been clear on the outcomes they’re seeking from us.

• Reliable supply – we need our water to stay in the region.
• Credible business – we need GMW to be transparent, honest and trustworthy and have a stable leadership team.
• Fair pricing – we need prices that fairly reflect the true use of infrastructure by all water users (including irrigators, investors and the environment).
• Efficient operations – we need the business to run lean enough to deliver affordable prices that support farmers to stay on the land.
• Responsive services – we need GMW people and systems to deliver the right flow rates in the right timeframes
• Simple systems – we need digital information and communications systems that are fast and simple (for customer service, water delivery and billing).

Your proposals

During our customer engagement program we have gathered more than 1300 pieces of customer feedback. Recognising that not all feedback is applicable to the Pricing Submission, all responses were categorised in to three clearly defined “next steps”. These being business ideas, customer proposals and advocacy opportunities. This ensures the appropriate response and action to occur. 

You can view the list of the Pricing Submission Customer Proposals here.

Beneath the Waterline – customer forum

A key contributor to these customer proposals was our Beneath the Waterline forum. The forum was held over three days, with 36 participants deliberating over more than a dozen major topics.

Beneath the Waterline was different from our other engagement activities. Participants were not only selected for their willingness to devote days of time and effort; criteria developed by an independent statistician ensured a more representative sample from across all customer segments, customer size, location, production and service type.

You can read our independent facilitators report here.  

Bulk water customers

We also prepared a consultation draft of key elements of GMW’s Pricing Submission 2020-2024 that specifically relates to our bulk water customers. While feedback on this document is now closed, you can download a copy here.

GMW typical customers

In A fairer deal for all our pricing is based on a GMW typical customer. The below table explains the typical customer attributes we use.