Today\u2019s announcement from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has marked the start of a review that could hit families across Greater Sydney with a 50% increase in water bills. The review will assess Sydney Water\u2019s request for a steep rate hike to fund at least $26 billion in essential infrastructure and operational upgrades by 2030.
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Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope said if approved by IPART and the Minns Labor Government, households would see water bills soar by over 50% within five years. This includes an 18% rise next year alone, followed by annual hikes of 6.8%.
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“With families already struggling under the weight of rising costs for energy, groceries, and other essentials, they shouldn\u2019t be forced to shoulder the additional burden of funding infrastructure driven by the Albanese Labor Government\u2019s failed immigration policies,\u201d Mr Tudehope said.
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“Chris Minns should be on the phone to the Prime Minister, demanding a real solution instead of passing the bill onto Sydney households.”
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Sydney Water\u2019s submission highlights the need for $16.6 billion in new infrastructure, primarily in Sydney\u2019s west, to support the surge in population growth driven by these very immigration policies.
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Shadow Water Minister Steph Cooke said the Premier, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, and Water Minister Rose Jackson need to devise a solution that doesn\u2019t involve skyrocketing water bills for everyday families.
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\u201cThis is not a small rise\u2014under Sydney Water\u2019s proposal, the average household could see water bills increase by hundreds of dollars each year,\u201d Ms Cooke said.
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\u201cSydney\u2019s infrastructure needs to keep up, but that\u2019s not a job for struggling households. Chris Minns must ask Canberra to cover these costs, not pass them on to Sydney families.\u201d
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With the IPART decision expected in March 2025, the clock is ticking. Premier Chris Minns, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, and Water Minister Rose Jackson have just five months to secure federal support for families, instead of squeezing more out of Sydney households in an attempt to balance the budget and meet federal housing targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today\u2019s announcement from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has marked the start of a review that could hit families across Greater Sydney with a 50% increase in water bills. The review will assess Sydney Water\u2019s request for a steep rate hike to fund at least $26 billion in essential infrastructure and operational upgrades … Continue reading “Chris Minns must protect families from 50% water bill hike, not pass costs of Albanese\u2019s immigration”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29875,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874\/revisions\/29875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}