What's good for the goose...

Given that all water utilities make a profit (ie they charge more than it costs them to provide the water), on what basis do you think it should be costed? Its obviously already charged above market price.

For most of Australia there is actually no shortage of water (there is plenty around, especially if you include the ocean), there is a shortage of collection (or processing, for salt water).

So, really, no one ‘wastes’ water, you are just wasting the energy that has gone into processing the water.

(for the sake of clarity – there are obviously some parts of Australia, mostly the ‘outback’, where there is not enough water no matter how many dams etc you have. Although – piping the water in is always an option)

FWIW my view is, as with vehicle rego, you should have no supply charge and increase the usage charge. Like cranky, my water usage bill was about 30% of the total bill.

whats with the abstraction charge anyway, they charge you for the same number of megalitres as the supply charge but there is no way in hell that they are actually removing the same amount of water from my property as they are supplying. I bet its the same for everyone else too.

Further evidence that I should be allowed to water my lawn all I want.

Perhaps we could let people take water from the lake to water their lawns? I could easily toss a small tank into my box trailer.

“My most recent bill came in at about $200. Of that, about $50 was for metered water, the rest was made up of supply, sewerage and abstraction charges.

As in the post I went to some effort to reference moron.

as it was in Parkes

In the Parliamentary Triangle?

And I’m sure a few people would be interested in what that scheme is JB

–>Cranky

You’re describing a situation in which your actual use is a minor component of what you get charged.

I’m advocating a very different sort of scheme.

It will never come to that, trust me. Prices work in mysterious ways..

and once water costs a fortune, how will people prevent water theft?

just saying you’ll need to provide a bit more info to substantiate it.

The water was out of a tank in the ute. I think the ACT Government (or NCA, as it was in Parkes) should clarify where the water came from. I suspect they won’t.

This is all rather petty, isn’t it?