Treasurer Peter Gutwein has denied claims made by the Greens that TasWater does not have the capacity to fund $1.5 billion of capital works over the next decade.
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Greens’ water spokesperson Andrea Dawkins said the Auditor-General's Report into Local Government Authorities and TasWater confirms the water body’s financial situation, with TasWater recording an underlying profit of $11 million for the year.
“While TasWater aren't in financial dire straits, they're not able to foot the bill to upgrade Launceston's ailing water and sewerage infrastructure, in the order of hundreds of millions, by themselves,” she said.
“It's time the Liberals chipped in for the project, critical to Northern Tasmania.”
Mr Gutwein said the audit instead confirmed that TasWater has the financial strength to meet its obligations.
“Collectively local government has net assets of $10 billion and in 2015-16 recorded a comprehensive surplus of nearly $1 billion,” he said. “The audit also shows TasWater has returned a distribution to its owners of $30 million as predicted.”
The report showed that TasWater’s underlying profit decreased $14.17 million from the prior year, primarily due to higher employee benefit costs of $6.82 million.
Holly Monery
Holly Monery is a journalist for The Examiner newspaper, based in Launceston, Tasmania. Her main area of focus is local government.
Holly Monery is a journalist for The Examiner newspaper, based in Launceston, Tasmania. Her main area of focus is local government.
