Last month, we released our 2023-24 Price List, outlining all Goulburn-Murray Water’s fees for the upcoming financial year.
We were pleased to announce that despite a Consumer Price Index (CPI) of seven per cent, most typical customer bills will rise by less than inflation, with increases ranging between two and six per cent.
The below-CPI increase in our prices is particularly significant in the context of the past few years.
We are now approaching the fourth and final year of our 2020-24 Pricing Submission.
It was a landmark Pricing Submission for G-MW, as we committed to various cost-cutting measures, including streamlining our business and creating data-driven asset management systems to optimise expenditure on our assets.
The changes we implemented would see our revenue requirements decrease by $64 million over the 2020-24 period.
This meant we were able to provide a 10 per cent reduction in customer fees in the very first year of that pricing submission.
It was an ambitious agenda for the business. Lowering prices so significantly is a challenge in itself, but then there is also the challenge of maintaining these prices.
Pleasingly, with each financial year that has followed the 10 per cent price drop in 2020, we have been able to keep price changes either at or below CPI.
Consolidating and maintaining the significant price reductions we made at the start of the 2020-24 pricing submission period has been a considerable task, particularly over a four-year period that has included COVID-19 and floods.
The stability of our prices over the past four years is evidence the wide-scale changes we made at the start of the period have been successful and the new practices we have implemented are sustainable.
One of the main practices that have helped us reduce and maintain prices is our channel-by-channel tool that we use for renewing our irrigation and drainage networks.
Our channel-by-channel tool allows us to use data to tailor maintenance on critical assets based on predicted demand and use of the assets. It ensures the money we invest in repairing and refurbishing assets is reflective of that asset’s long-term value.
The savings from this more data-driven, tailored approach are profound. Furthermore, they are savings we have been able to make without compromising the efficiency or reliability of our water delivery network.
Our 2020-24 Pricing Submission saw various other improvements to make our pricing easier and fairer for our customers.
These improvements included simplifying service point fees by treating meters the same across customer groups; introducing a single Customer Fee and Water Register Fee; transitioning to system pricing for all water share owners; and introducing uniform delivery fees across the six areas in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District.
We made these changes after in-depth engagement with our customers. This engagement was crucial to ensuring we were adapting our services in a way that best suited those who were paying for them.
We are currently engaging customers on our proposed 2024-28 Pricing Submission.
Throughout June, July and August, G-MW will be holding drop-in sessions and workshops across the region to provide all customers with the opportunity to provide feedback and discuss our proposed prices and services.
A full list of drop-in sessions and workshops, including locations, can be found at: yoursay.gmwater.com.au
Charmaine Quick
G-MW managing director