Thursday, 6 March 2025

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:27): (1503) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Water, and it concerns Greater Western Water. I am in receipt of correspondence from Mr AD Way, who lives in Richmond but has property in the area. He has written to the Minister for Water the Honourable Gayle Tierney because he has had a series of problems with his billing. He talks about the outstanding issues with Greater Western Water:

My issues with GWW have not been resolved to my satisfaction.

In the letter that she sent him, she wrote:

Customers deserve transparency from their water providers. In mid-2024, GWW merged two computer systems used by the former City West Water and the former Western Water for billing. It is clear this IT merger has triggered billing issues, and customers like yourself are rightly frustrated.

This was some time ago. She said:

In response, the Government has requested the Board of Greater Western Water to commence an independent review of its operational response to the resulting billing and payment issues. The Lead Reviewer is Claire Noone, a strong advocate for consumer rights through former … roles at Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission …

The Review is an important step – but we know customers need more immediate support.

So they have set up additional staff and a call line. GWW is:

… opening its offices in Footscray and Sunbury for face-to-face service days, to provide … support with bill and payment issues.

This has also been escalated higher, to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, in the form of Grant Breheny, the director of governance and compliance in the water and catchments group at DEECA. But Mr Way is not happy with this, and I do not blame him. He talks about Claire Noone’s review and he has a series of questions. So the action in my adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Water to respond publicly to Mr Way’s questions, one of which is:

On what exact date was this review commissioned? Why has it taken so long to institute the review?

He said:

I formally request a copy of the review’s terms of reference, reporting structures and deadlines.

And I think they should be released publicly. He went on:

I formally request to be informed of the review’s recommendations.

I formally request to be informed as to how the review’s recommendations are to be implemented and according to what processes and timelines.

I also note there is seemingly no reference to this review either on the GWW or the DEECA websites.

And he wants to know why. So the minister needs to respond to Mr Way, but also in a public way she needs to actually explain how this mess – this absolute disaster – has come about, and the Noone review needs to become transparent and public.