Coliban Water submitted their pricing proposal for rural prices from 1 July 2014.
We assessed the proposal and released our Coliban Water Rural Price Review: Final Decision.
We released a final decision regarding Melbourne Water's pricing proposal for the period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2021.
Our release of Melbourne Water Price Review 2016: Final Decision completes our review of the maximum prices that Melbourne Water may charge for its services for this fourth regulatory period.
Melbourne Water is the wholesaler of water, sewage treatment and recycled water for Melbourne. It also has responsibilities for waterway health and storm water management for greater Melbourne.
Our Goulburn-Murray Water Price Review 2016: Final Decision also covers tariff structures and service standards.This completed our review of the maximum prices that Goulburn-Murray Water may charge for irrigation and drainage, bulk storage, diversion services and miscellaneous services.
We reviewed Goulburn-Murray Water’s price proposal under the Water Charge (Infrastructure) Rules. We applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for accreditation to regulate Goulburn-Murray Water’s regulated charges in 2012. We were accredited for ten years from 17 February 2012. A condition of our accreditation was that we apply pricing principles developed by the ACCC when approving regulated charges under the Water Charge (Infrastructure) Rules.
View a copy of the accreditation.
As of 7 June 2017, we varied the Goulburn Murray Water determination (dated 15 June 2016). This variation replaces clause 2.3(b)(iii) in the determination.
For more information about this variation, please review our determination variation.
We have conducted a review of the length of the period of North East Water’s eight-year price determination.
View North East Water’s submission and our letter to North East Water outlining our decision on the continuation of the determination.
We have completed our review of the prices that 17 Victorian water businesses will charge from 1 July 2018.
Our determinations set out the prices from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2023, except for:
On 1 July 2021, City West Water and Western Water integrated to form Greater Western Water. The price determinations for City West Water and Western Water apply to 30 June 2023.
Most water customers will benefit from flat or falling water prices. In 2018–19, typical residential bills will fall or remain relatively steady for 13 water corporations, with the biggest declines for customers of South East Water (Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs), GWMWater (Horsham), City West Water (Melbourne’s CBD and western suburbs) and Coliban Water (Bendigo).
Over the five year period from 1 July 2018, customers of Goulburn Valley Water (Shepparton) will benefit from the largest reduction of around $90 for a typical residential customer.
Customers of North East Water (Wodonga) will see small price increases of $4 per year for a typical customer, but will still have some of the lowest water bills in Australia. Customers of Gippsland Water and Westernport Water will see a one-off bill increase in 2018–19, with typical bills rising with inflation over the next four years.
Typical residential owner occupier water bills are based on the average consumption for households in that region and are presented in $2018-19 terms.
| Water business and documents | 2018-19 typical residential water bills (from 1 July 2018) | Difference compared to 2017-18 |
| $1,025 | $0 | |
| $1,243 | -$14 | |
| $955 | -$26 | |
| $1,339 | -$26 | |
| $1,184 | -$5 | |
| $1,334 | +$20 | |
| $919 | -$19 | |
| $1,387 | -$30 | |
| $972 | -$3 | |
| $875 | +$4 | |
| $963 | -$73 | |
| $996 | 0 | |
| $1,110 | -$11 | |
| $1,152 | +$13 | |
| $1,019 | 0 | |
| $1,059 | -$20 |
Urban water corporations will continue to charge a fixed service charge and variable component that depends on water use. Many water corporations will rebalance the mix of these variable and fixed charges in response to feedback from customers. Other changes to tariffs include:
Price submissions were informed by an unprecedented level of customer engagement by the water sector. In total, the 17 water corporations heard the views of over 150,000 customers on water services, prices and investment. They learned what was important to their customers and this helped to ensure that the price submissions were more highly informed by customer views than ever before.
Informed by their engagement programs, the water corporations have committed to improving services in key areas. As well as continuing to invest in safe and reliable water and sewerage services, some of the ways the water corporations plans to improve outcomes are:
For the majority of water corporations, customers identified affordability and fairness among their priority concerns. Some of the ways the water corporations plan to respond includes:
Read our customer fact sheet showing an overview to the 2018 water price review.
As part of the water price review process, water businesses send us submissions on their proposed prices and key outcomes. Once we make a determination on these proposals, we create annual tariff schedules for each Victorian water business. The schedules outline the maximum prices each water business can charge their customers for specific services, such as water delivery and sewage processing.
We review the price submissions against the Water Industry Regulatory Order (2014), the Essential Services Commission Act 2001, and the guidance we provided water businesses in November 2016.
This review is the first one we’ve undertaken under our new water pricing approach (PREMO), which includes new incentives for water businesses to deliver outcomes most valued by customers. PREMO also enables us to fast-track submissions where we are able to quickly assess compliance with our guidance and the regulatory order.
Review key dates in our 2018 water price review process.
Read about how water bills are calculated and how we regulate the water sector.
We have released our final decision on the Quiet Lakes bore flushing tariff.
Our final decision considers Melbourne Water’s proposal and the legislation and regulation that guides our pricing role. We considered all feedback from our consultation process.
View the amendment to the determination made during Melbourne Water’s 2016 price review Melbourne Water Price Review 2016 – Determination amendment 1.
The final decision to amend the Melbourne Water Price Review 2016 – Determination allows Melbourne Water to charge up to $118 per annum for bore flushing and monitoring services, to be levied on properties that border either Lake Legana or Lake Illawong in the Quiet Lakes area of Patterson Lakes.
Melbourne Water may charge the tariff from 1 July 2017. The tariff does not affect any other Melbourne Water customers, and is not subject to indexation or increase in the period to and including 2020–21.
On 28 November 2016, Melbourne Water submitted a proposal for a new Quiet Lakes bore-flushing tariff, which would apply from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021. It would be levied on 251 properties that border Lake Legana and Lake Illawong within the Quiet Lakes area in Patterson Lakes.
We issued a draft decision in April. We received a number of submissions from stakeholders following the release of our draft decision. We considered the view we received in submissions before making our final decision.
The schedules are based on findings from our water price reviews and outline the maximum prices each water business can charge their customers for specific services, such as water delivery and sewage processing.
