SunWater ends $38m failed billing system, pledges farmer rebates

Queensland farmers who were “promised a Rolls Royce when all they needed was a Holden” are to be refunded over a failed $38m IT project, after 18 months of silence and scrutiny over wasted public money.

SunWater has scrapped its costly failed CASPr project telling irrigators they will not be lumped with the bill. Picture: SunWater

Customers helping to pay for a failed $38 million SunWater accounting project will be refunded after the organisation confirmed has cancelled implementation of the technology.

Tools on the Customer and Stakeholder Project (CASPr) project were quietly downed 18 months ago, with the water service provider now confirming it would not proceed.

In a statement on Wednesday, SunWater said it would not be recovering costs spent on the CASPr project from its customers.

“We will provide a rebate to eligible customers to cover the portion of their water costs attributable to the project,” SunWater said.

SunWater has only now begun work on identifying an alternative solution.

“SunWater is in the process of informing customers about the rebate process,” a spokesman said.

“We have been reviewing what components of the previous project work can be recovered and used as part of a new solution.”

The admission ends an 18-month period in which SunWater stopped work on the platform but continued to describe it as a major ongoing activity in official documents including its 2024–25 Statement of Corporate Intent released in October.

The CASPr was also outlined in Sunwater’s September 2024 submission to the Queensland Competition Authority for pricing.

For farmers, who use Sunwater’s services for irrigation, the development is significant.

SunWater chief executive Glenn Stockton has previously backed the CASPr project.

The QCA’s final 2025–27 water price path, set before SunWater declared CASPr was abandoned, included $18.5 million in CASPr costs to be recovered from irrigators.

SunWater has now confirmed those charges will be fully rebated.

The organisation also said its revised position was that customers should not pay for the non-existent system and will outline its rebate methodology in early 2026.

It marks a dramatic reversal from Sunwater’s 2024 stance, when the utility was still seeking to recover $34 million from farmers for a project it knew had already stalled.

Despite the backdown, the project has raised renewed questions about governance, transparency and how SunWater continued to assert CASPr was progressing long after the project was paused, before ultimately being cancelled.

Angry irrigators and critics said the backdown only occurred because the issue was exposed publicly.

One long-time customer, Eton Irrigation general manager Austin Evans was glad farmers would not be forced to pay for a $38 million system “that never existed”.

The latest update on the CASPr project from SunWater was issued late November.

“It’s good news and it’s something we argued for — the cost of it was just excessive,” Mr Evans said.

“So the fact that it’s been shelved is a good outcome.

“They still have to do something with their systems, but our understanding is they’ve clearly got the message that that sort of spend is not acceptable.

“The QCA said it wasn’t a justifiable expense and that they should be doing it for more like $18 million rather than $40 million, which is still a large sum of money.

“The original SunWater position was to say they just wouldn’t do it (recover costs) as part of the pricing path, which effectively meant the money had to come from somewhere else.

“My understanding now is that it’s been terminated altogether and they’re still looking to do some work on the system but at a much cheaper cost, more targeted, and just modifying what they’ve got rather than a complete rebuild.

“They were trying to build a Rolls Royce when all they needed was a Holden.”

Bundaberg Regional Irrigators Group general manager Dale Holliss said it was excessive for a custom billing and contract management system to cost $7429 per customer.

“Particularly given that our irrigators are in a regulated part of the scheme which is not very complex in its billing requirements.

“SunWater has shown some common sense with this decision.”

Taxpayers have still been left with the final bill for more than $20 million already spent on the project, including early development work SunWater said “was not demonstrably good practice”.

Water Minister Ann Leahy.

Farmers will receive a short survey in early 2026 about proposed options to return or close annuity balances if a regulated asset base approach is adopted but SunWater has confirmed CASPr prices will not be included in the customer invoice calculator released this month.

A spokesperson for Water Minister Ann Leahy said the government was ensuring the current QCA review for irrigation prices “will ensure the removal of CASPr costs from Sunwater’s irrigation customers”.