Tim McCurdy – Labor spin as desal pain rolls on
Tuesday 2 April 2024
The Allan Labor Government has stooped to new levels of PR spin as Victoria’s idle and costly desalination plant adds to cost of living pain.
Water storage levels are at 91 per cent and rising after recent rain, but the desalination plant is costing Victorians a staggering $700 million annually in running costs and repayments.
Although there is no requirement for a desalination water order this year, households are still suffering the flow-on effects of past orders amid healthy storage levels.
In 2021-22, Labor ordered 125 gigalitres at a cost of $76.7 million and in 2022-23 it ordered 15 gigalitres at a price of $11 million.
Labor’s last order came with our dams at levels around 90 percent. Orders from the desalination plant should not come into play until water storages fall below 60 per cent.
Overall, Labor has spent more than $200 million on wasteful and excessive desalinated water orders that we don’t need, pushing water prices up and hitting households in the hip pocket.
Initiated in 2009, the Victorian Desalination Project will cost the state at least $20 billion in nominal terms over its 30-year contract.
Victorians deserve a break on lower water bills, but the excessive cost of the desalination plant coupled with Labor’s plan to extract $536 million from Victoria’s water authorities over the next two years to reign in soaring debt, means any costs savings are a pipe dream.
Shadow Minister for Water, Tim McCurdy, expressed his frustration for Victorians in the wake of further Labor mismanagement of funds.
“The Allan Labor Government’s financial mismanagement has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars going down the drain, while Victorians are left with decaying infrastructure and higher bills,” Mr McCurdy said.
“Labor can’t manage money and Victorians are paying the price.”