Mayor Glen Hartwig says water woes key driver of Gympie rate rise

A looming nine-figure rebuild of a century-old water treatment plant is a key reason why a Queensland council has “bitten the bullet” and hit ratepayers with an increase, the mayor says.

A looming $120 million rebuild of a century-old water treatment plant is a key reason why the Gympie Council has “bitten the bullet” and hiked rates, Mayor Glen Hartwig says.

Councillors backed a 9.3 per cent rate rise Tuesday following an hour of debate over the jump, which was described by Mayor Glen Hartwig as a choice between cutting back services or increasing rates for the “dramatically growing region”.

Not every part of the $242.5m budget went down smoothly with councillors.

Jess Milne moved to delay voting on the budget’s revenue statement amid questions over the accuracy and fairness of some rating categories.

“We need to make (these decisions) fully informed,” Ms Milne said.

“Some of these sums don’t add up to me.”

Mick Curran shared Ms Milne’s concerns, saying the documents provided to councillors “raised some questions”.

These included his own about a $3m budget spend on consultants.

“There are too many questions,” Mr Curran said.

“When is Civic Centre going to open? Where are we on our indoor stadium?”

He did not support Ms Milne’s motion though, and it was defeated after failing to secure any further support.

Mr Curran did vote against adopting the budget and its associated document, which passed eight to one.

A looming $120 million rebuild of a century-old water treatment plant is a key reason why the Gympie Council has “bitten the bullet” and hiked rates, Mayor Glen Hartwig says.

Following the meeting, Mayor Glen Hartwig said the council was dealing with “significant” increases through CPI.

“The organisation has tried to deal with those increases, but like everyone in the household you have to pay what the services cost,” Mr Hartwig said.

“We have a water treatment plant first built in 1898, and refurbished in 1964.

Councillors backed a 9.3 per cent rate rise Tuesday following an hour of debate over the jump, which was described by Mayor Glen Hartwig as a choice between cutting back services or increasing rates for the “dramatically growing region”.

“There are components of that treatment plant that are 60 years old, and there are components that are over 100 years old.

“We need to ensure water is available for our residents.”

He said 20 per cent of the region’s entire water network would reach its end of life “in the next five to seven years”.

Mr Hartwig said the rebuild would have cost only $60m-$70m had it been done in 10 years ago, before costs soared in the wake of Covid.

“Those decisions have ramifications,” Mr Hartwig said.

In response to questions as to whether the council considered deterring the large rate rise given the ongoing cost of living crisis, Mr Hartwig said doing so would simply repeat history.

“We did consider that, and I think that’s what council have done in the past and that’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in,” he said.

“Council could take the soft option … and kick the can down the road, which has been done in the past … if (the water treatment plant) survived structurally, another five to 10 years, it might be $200 million to build a similar facility.”

The rise reinforced his earlier pleas for federal and state governments needed to increase the amount of financial support they gave councils, Mr Hartwig said.

“We’ve tightened as much as we can,” he said.

Originally published as Mayor Glen Hartwig says water woes key driver of Gympie rate rise