Typical annual residential owner occupier water and sewerage bills for 2023-24 will be $1,141 (including inflation), a 6.1 per cent increase from $1,076 in 2022-23.

Overall, prices will fall by around 0.9 per cent (before inflation) per year, after 2023-24.

Barwon Water’s water tariff structure between fixed and volumetric, will remain unchanged for the period between 2023–28.

Barwon Water worked with its customers to develop outcomes, with accompanying measures and targets to track its performance each year.

Barwon Water’s outcome commitments to its customers are:

• Safe, secure, sustainable water
• Innovative, reliable services
• Healthier environment
• Trust, affordability, and value.

• The water sector has a good understanding of family violence.
• The family violence provisions remain appropriate.

• Approaches to staff training differ between businesses, which can impact on the customer experience.
• Variations in access to and eligibility for payment support options are contributing to inconsistent customer experiences.
• Customer safety protections are not always appropriately applied.
• Incomplete and inconsistent notifications to the commission of problems or issues faced by businesses in applying protections to customers that may be experiencing family violence limits our ability to address any inconsistent business practice and detect non-compliance.

• Businesses provide limited or no customer safety protections when family violence is not disclosed.
• Not all water businesses are effective in identifying and adapting to the unique needs of customers.
• Low customer awareness limits access to support.
• The administration and design of government supports can create a barrier to access.

Learning and collaboration was identified as an area of focus which would enable the sector to build on existing strengths and learn from each other. The commission will:

• Update the 2019 Better Practice in Responding to Family Violence publication.

• Collaborate to promote better industry practice.

Increasing access to support was identified as an area for improvement that will enable greater numbers of customers affected by family violence to access support from their water business. The commission will:

• Deliver a sector workshop to improve customer safety protections when family violence is not disclosed.

• Increase awareness of support available to customers experiencing family violence.

• Advocate for improvements to the administration and design of government grants and concessions.

Setting clear expectations was identified as an area for improvement that will target improved consistency in interpretation of the family violence provisions and water business obligations regarding reporting of non-compliance or potential non-compliance. The commission will:

• Develop guiding materials to support greater consistency across water businesses.

• Develop reporting requirements that strengthen water business obligations to self-report non-compliance or potential non-compliance to the commission.

Understanding impact was identified as an area for improvement that will ensure there is a clear and consistent approach to monitoring and reporting on the family violence provisions. The commission will:

• Review and formalise the commission’s monitoring and reporting on the family violence provisions.

Goulburn-Murray Water customer bills will generally change by less than inflation from 1 July 2024. Some medium and large gravity irrigation customers will experience slight increases each year.  

We have approved Goulburn-Murray Water’s proposed changes to drainage tariffs and its move to system pricing for bulk water pricing.

Goulburn-Murray Water worked with its customers to develop six outcomes with measures and targets to track its performance. 

Goulburn-Murray Water’s outcome commitments to its customers are:

• Reliable supply
• Credible business
• Fair pricing
• Efficient operations
• Responsible services
• Socially responsible.