Jails funded as DV services stretched to breaking point
More than half a billion dollars will go towards dealing with domestic violence to undo years of "neglect", with plans to better support victim-survivors and keep alleged abusers behind bars.
Non-government support services will get more certainty around funding with five-year contracts promised, the NSW government said on Monday.
Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Delia Donovan said that would improve service sustainability while other reforms were important building blocks.
"But they don't address the reality that existing services are stretched to breaking point - operating on outdated funding models that don't come close to covering today's costs," she said.
"Too often, domestic and family violence workers are tied to short-term contracts through pilots, and this creates a lot of uncertainty."
Premier Chris Minns said his government was providing more funding than any predecessor but the budget was also stretched.
"It may not be enough for advocates and they may be demanding more but we believe we're pushing the outer edges of what's possible at the moment," he told reporters.
About half of the money is earmarked for a $227 million injection into the state's victims' support service across five years to help victim-survivors access counselling and financial assistance.
Almost $50 million will be spent on making it easier for them to give evidence, with remote courtrooms alleviating the risk of attending the same court complex as their abuser.
The funds will also provide counselling, legal aid and financial advice at a hub expected to open in late 2027.
An estimated one-in-four women and one-in-eight men in Australia have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15.
Recent bail changes for alleged domestic violence offenders have coincided with more inmates on remand, pushing the state's prison population to near record highs.
More than $100 million will go towards corrective services to help cope with the increase.
Another change ensures bail decisions will be made by magistrates, following the high-profile April 2024 murder of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes, allegedly by her former boyfriend Daniel Billings, who was granted bail by a registrar about two weeks earlier.
Ten virtual courtrooms are planned to support remote bail hearings and five new physical ones will be built in Sydney's city centre.
NSW Law Society president Jennifer Ball also welcomed an almost $50 million boost to fund more public prosecutors.
"But we will be examining the NSW budget ... to determine whether sufficient funding will also be allocated to Legal Aid NSW and Aboriginal Legal Service to meet the significant extra demand new prosecutors will have on the criminal justice system," she said.
The budget announcements will lay the foundation for longer-term reforms, Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Jodie Harrison said.
"This is work that previous governments have neglected for many years," she said.
The state budget will be handed down on June 24.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
Support services will get longer funding timelines to help more than a million domestic violence survivors as spending on jails and courts increases.
More than half a billion dollars will go towards dealing with domestic violence to undo years of "neglect", with plans to better support victim-survivors and keep alleged abusers behind bars.
Non-government support services will get more certainty around funding with five-year contracts promised, the NSW government said on Monday.
Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Delia Donovan said that would improve service sustainability while other reforms were important building blocks.
"But they don't address the reality that existing services are stretched to breaking point - operating on outdated funding models that don't come close to covering today's costs," she said.
"Too often, domestic and family violence workers are tied to short-term contracts through pilots, and this creates a lot of uncertainty."
Premier Chris Minns said his government was providing more funding than any predecessor but the budget was also stretched.
"It may not be enough for advocates and they may be demanding more but we believe we're pushing the outer edges of what's possible at the moment," he told reporters.
About half of the money is earmarked for a $227 million injection into the state's victims' support service across five years to help victim-survivors access counselling and financial assistance.
Almost $50 million will be spent on making it easier for them to give evidence, with remote courtrooms alleviating the risk of attending the same court complex as their abuser.
The funds will also provide counselling, legal aid and financial advice at a hub expected to open in late 2027.
An estimated one-in-four women and one-in-eight men in Australia have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15.
Recent bail changes for alleged domestic violence offenders have coincided with more inmates on remand, pushing the state's prison population to near record highs.
More than $100 million will go towards corrective services to help cope with the increase.
Another change ensures bail decisions will be made by magistrates, following the high-profile April 2024 murder of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes, allegedly by her former boyfriend Daniel Billings, who was granted bail by a registrar about two weeks earlier.
Ten virtual courtrooms are planned to support remote bail hearings and five new physical ones will be built in Sydney's city centre.
NSW Law Society president Jennifer Ball also welcomed an almost $50 million boost to fund more public prosecutors.
"But we will be examining the NSW budget ... to determine whether sufficient funding will also be allocated to Legal Aid NSW and Aboriginal Legal Service to meet the significant extra demand new prosecutors will have on the criminal justice system," she said.
The budget announcements will lay the foundation for longer-term reforms, Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Jodie Harrison said.
"This is work that previous governments have neglected for many years," she said.
The state budget will be handed down on June 24.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
Support services will get longer funding timelines to help more than a million domestic violence survivors as spending on jails and courts increases.
More than half a billion dollars will go towards dealing with domestic violence to undo years of "neglect", with plans to better support victim-survivors and keep alleged abusers behind bars.
Non-government support services will get more certainty around funding with five-year contracts promised, the NSW government said on Monday.
Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Delia Donovan said that would improve service sustainability while other reforms were important building blocks.
"But they don't address the reality that existing services are stretched to breaking point - operating on outdated funding models that don't come close to covering today's costs," she said.
"Too often, domestic and family violence workers are tied to short-term contracts through pilots, and this creates a lot of uncertainty."
Premier Chris Minns said his government was providing more funding than any predecessor but the budget was also stretched.
"It may not be enough for advocates and they may be demanding more but we believe we're pushing the outer edges of what's possible at the moment," he told reporters.
About half of the money is earmarked for a $227 million injection into the state's victims' support service across five years to help victim-survivors access counselling and financial assistance.
Almost $50 million will be spent on making it easier for them to give evidence, with remote courtrooms alleviating the risk of attending the same court complex as their abuser.
The funds will also provide counselling, legal aid and financial advice at a hub expected to open in late 2027.
An estimated one-in-four women and one-in-eight men in Australia have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15.
Recent bail changes for alleged domestic violence offenders have coincided with more inmates on remand, pushing the state's prison population to near record highs.
More than $100 million will go towards corrective services to help cope with the increase.
Another change ensures bail decisions will be made by magistrates, following the high-profile April 2024 murder of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes, allegedly by her former boyfriend Daniel Billings, who was granted bail by a registrar about two weeks earlier.
Ten virtual courtrooms are planned to support remote bail hearings and five new physical ones will be built in Sydney's city centre.
NSW Law Society president Jennifer Ball also welcomed an almost $50 million boost to fund more public prosecutors.
"But we will be examining the NSW budget ... to determine whether sufficient funding will also be allocated to Legal Aid NSW and Aboriginal Legal Service to meet the significant extra demand new prosecutors will have on the criminal justice system," she said.
The budget announcements will lay the foundation for longer-term reforms, Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Jodie Harrison said.
"This is work that previous governments have neglected for many years," she said.
The state budget will be handed down on June 24.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
Support services will get longer funding timelines to help more than a million domestic violence survivors as spending on jails and courts increases.
More than half a billion dollars will go towards dealing with domestic violence to undo years of "neglect", with plans to better support victim-survivors and keep alleged abusers behind bars.
Non-government support services will get more certainty around funding with five-year contracts promised, the NSW government said on Monday.
Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Delia Donovan said that would improve service sustainability while other reforms were important building blocks.
"But they don't address the reality that existing services are stretched to breaking point - operating on outdated funding models that don't come close to covering today's costs," she said.
"Too often, domestic and family violence workers are tied to short-term contracts through pilots, and this creates a lot of uncertainty."
Premier Chris Minns said his government was providing more funding than any predecessor but the budget was also stretched.
"It may not be enough for advocates and they may be demanding more but we believe we're pushing the outer edges of what's possible at the moment," he told reporters.
About half of the money is earmarked for a $227 million injection into the state's victims' support service across five years to help victim-survivors access counselling and financial assistance.
Almost $50 million will be spent on making it easier for them to give evidence, with remote courtrooms alleviating the risk of attending the same court complex as their abuser.
The funds will also provide counselling, legal aid and financial advice at a hub expected to open in late 2027.
An estimated one-in-four women and one-in-eight men in Australia have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15.
Recent bail changes for alleged domestic violence offenders have coincided with more inmates on remand, pushing the state's prison population to near record highs.
More than $100 million will go towards corrective services to help cope with the increase.
Another change ensures bail decisions will be made by magistrates, following the high-profile April 2024 murder of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes, allegedly by her former boyfriend Daniel Billings, who was granted bail by a registrar about two weeks earlier.
Ten virtual courtrooms are planned to support remote bail hearings and five new physical ones will be built in Sydney's city centre.
NSW Law Society president Jennifer Ball also welcomed an almost $50 million boost to fund more public prosecutors.
"But we will be examining the NSW budget ... to determine whether sufficient funding will also be allocated to Legal Aid NSW and Aboriginal Legal Service to meet the significant extra demand new prosecutors will have on the criminal justice system," she said.
The budget announcements will lay the foundation for longer-term reforms, Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Jodie Harrison said.
"This is work that previous governments have neglected for many years," she said.
The state budget will be handed down on June 24.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
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Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Pay more for your water or boil it? The unpalatable choice behind Sydney's water woes
In March 2021, as 'one-in-100-year' floods across Sydney's eastern seaboard followed hard on bushfires and drought, Sydney Water and the then-Coalition government were preparing for the worst: telling some of the 5 million users to boil their drinking water to ensure its safety. 'This is something you'd only expect in the Third World,' said one source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail private deliberations. The narrowly avoided boil water notice, exceedingly rare for a state capital, would have been the first in Sydney since 1998, when a citywide warning was issued after pathogens that can cause nausea and severe diarrhoea were detected in supply from Macquarie Street to Palm Beach. Now, Sydney Water has begun briefing stakeholders that a draft decision by pricing regulator IPART, slashing the state-owned utility's planned capital expenditure by 35 per cent, or $5.9 billion, again raises the risk of Sydneysiders having to boil water during extreme rainfall events. The problem: the state-owned corporation funds infrastructure upgrades through raising water bills, an unpalatable choice for any government, and Sydney Water was proposing a 50 per cent increase over five years. NSW Premier Chris Minns wrote to IPART in August urging it to make 'cost-of-living impacts' a first-order consideration. Released in May, IPART's draft determination proposed limiting household bill rises to 23 per cent. The final decision is expected in September, with increases taking effect on October 1. Experts and peak bodies say the fallout will be twofold: reduced expenditure will limit the renewal of ageing pipes, plants and sewers with potentially disastrous consequences, and investment in new infrastructure will not be enough to support NSW's commitment to build 263,000 homes across Sydney Water's network by 2029. The question for bill payers is this: should we get used to paying more for water to secure its supply now, or risk passing on the cost, and possible catastrophe, to future customers? And in a housing crisis, Sydney Water and its stakeholders are asking why the government and IPART have pulled the handbrake on critical infrastructure for the construction of homes. Support for housing growth Housing supply is at the centre of Sydney Water's price proposal – the areas it covers will contribute most of the state government's commitments under the National Housing Accord. Before this year's budget, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey enthused that the next 10 years would be about delivering the 'pipes and poles' for much-needed housing, saying the government's 'rule of thumb' was that anything former Labor premier Neville Wran built in the 1970s and '80s would be replaced. But the 2025-2026 budget did not deliver any significant funding to make up the expenditure reduction proposed by IPART's draft determination. Many of the experts interviewed for this article said the Minns government's housing targets were not achievable with this reduced capital. Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said IPART's proposal would deliver considerably less than 263,000, or even the 191,000 he considered realistic in the current market. 'You can't say we've got a housing supply crisis, and it's the biggest challenge that our government faces, and then say: 'Oh, but we're not going to fund Sydney Water, and we're not going to allow [it] to raise the money through rates,' ' Forrest said. Without adequate funding for infrastructure, building houses in growth areas would be irresponsible, said Stuart Khan, head of civil engineering at the University of Sydney. 'We definitely don't want to get into a situation where wastewater infrastructure lags behind housing infrastructure. We've seen that happen in parts of Sydney,' he said. Inner Sydney councils including Woollahra have already expressed concern about a possible strain on water infrastructure from new dwellings in their objections to the government's low- and mid-rise housing reforms. But LGAs such as Wollondilly on Sydney's south-western fringe are evidence of the problems that could eventuate if water infrastructure does not keep up with housing demand. The shire contains two areas rezoned in 2023 as growth areas, in the towns of Wilton and Appin. In Wilton, where the population of 5000 is expected to multiply elevenfold by 2040, 12,000 lots without wastewater connections were rezoned as residential, meaning newly built houses now have their sewage trucked out regularly. Wollondilly Shire Mayor Matt Gould said work to temporarily expand a nearby treatment plant would only be able to service three-quarters of the lots once complete. 'We're willing to do our fair share to address the housing crisis, but we have an infrastructure crisis that is preventing the capacity to ... deliver.' So what has given the state government and IPART the confidence that housing can be delivered without the infrastructure? Outdated housing forecasts, said Property Council NSW executive director Katie Stevenson, noting IPART's draft decision is based on the Greater Sydney Housing Supply forecast in 2023, which 'came well before the NSW government's major suite of housing reforms' and predicted 172,900 homes over the six years to 2029. But the modelling underpinning IPART's draft report takes a more conservative approach, estimating 120,000 additional homes will be built by 2029. Sydney Water based its pricing proposal on the government's updated commitment. Peter Davies, a professor of sustainability at Macquarie University, said the state government and IPART had rewarded this foresight by leaving the utility 'between a rock and a hard place'. A spokesperson for the Minns government rejected the 120,000 figure, saying an assessment by Infrastructure NSW had found housing from its transport-oriented development and low- and mid-rise rezoning could be accommodated 'without the need for major new water infrastructure investment'. 'Sydney Water has a responsibility to ensure that its water infrastructure pipeline does not hold up the delivery of new homes,' they said. Upgrading Sydney's ageing water infrastructure Sydney's water infrastructure is, by modern standards, ancient. The CBD's Bennelong Point Sewerage System became the first planned system to dispose of Sydney's sewage in 1857, one year before the construction of London's modern sewerage system. It still handles stormwater today. But Khan said most infrastructure went in 50 years ago. 'It's coming up towards end of life, or it's gradually going to reach end of life over the next 20 or 30 years,' he said. Stuart Wilson, deputy director of the Water Services Association of Australia said no one, including IPART and the state government, was denying the need to renew this infrastructure. 'It's an argument about in this three- to five-year period or the next three- to five-year period … For a relatively small benefit from deferring ... what risks and costs are you running with the system?' Australian Water Association chief executive Corinne Cheeseman said the main Sydney Water accountabilities that IPART's decision considers are 'to deliver clean and safe drinking water, but also to maintain our sewer system so we can protect the environment'. 'Eighty per cent of our drinking water supply comes through Prospect Water Filtration Plant,' she said. 'It's a very good water filtration plant, but we've had significant flood events in the last three years.' Flooding can overwhelm the plant's capacity and lead to increased 'turbidity' or cloudiness, as debris and, recently, bushfire ash are washed into the water supply. In its price proposal, Sydney Water proposed upgrading pre-treatment at Prospect for $697 million. IPART's draft determination proposed deferring this program, noting that Prospect had survived historical adverse events without boil-water notices. 'Weather variation creates uncertainties that may challenge Sydney Water's ability to survive sequential adverse weather events as climate change advances,' the report conceded. Cheeseman said sewage spills from clogged pipes, resulting in environmental and drinking water contamination, could become common, especially given IPART's draft proposal slashed Sydney Water's plans to renew high-risk areas of the network by between $1 billion and $1.9 billion, or between 18 and 34 per cent. Ian Wright, a professor of environmental science at Western Sydney University who worked for Sydney Water between 1989 and 2006, said more frequent flooding and drought cycles brought on by climate change justified the utility's proposal to expand the use of the once-controversial Sydney Desalination Plant drinking water within its network. The plant, which cost the state government $1.9 billion to build before it was leased privately in 2012, can supply up to 15 per cent of Sydney's drinking water, but contributed 6.7 per cent of Sydney Water's drinking water in 2023-24, according to the utility's most recent annual report. IPART's draft decision deferred most of the involved expenditure to the next price proposal, leaving Sydney's drinking water reliant for now on the ageing Warragamba Dam, which spilled this month, but was at 43.9 per cent capacity as recently as 2019. 'We've gone into a flooding cycle, but we will go back into a dry cycle ... Our last big addition to the water supply was Warragamba ... It was completed in 1960.' Who should bear the cost? Under Sydney Water's model, customers cover most capital expenditure on renewal and growth of infrastructure. Most of the experts interviewed for this article agreed water bills had been too low for too long. Simon Fane, a UTS associate professor who advises water utilities and governments nationwide, characterised the problem as 'multiple layers of people not wanting to put up bills'. 'For the last few years, the water industry has known that things were going to get more expensive, but haven't really been flagging enough.' There was a real increase of only 18 per cent in the median typical residential bill in NSW in the 20 years to 2024. WSAA executive director Adam Lovell said customers who can pay, 'should pay, but those customers who can't, there are well-established and well-proposed programs to help them into the future'. In 2024-25, the government spent $130 million on concessions for pensioners and $17 million on exempt non-profit organisations serviced by Sydney Water, and $2 million on other hardship programs across Sydney Water and Hunter Water. Loading There are alternative methods of generating funds. Wilson said in the case of new infrastructure, funding could come from the developers who benefit, while funding for both growth and renewal could come directly from the government. The latter was an idea echoed by NSW opposition water spokeswoman Steph Cooke. Cooke criticised price increases for consumers, saying IPART's 'serious rebuke of Sydney Water's proposal' had spared them an 18 per cent rise, but 'left a $6 billion hole in Sydney Water's capital works program'. 'If Labor won't allow Sydney Water to manage its business properly then it needs to invest more from the state budget to support enabling infrastructure, like water, for new homes,' she said. Macquarie University's Davies had a more radical suggestion: to tax some of the value developers receive from rezoning, which would result in multimillion-dollar windfalls. 'Essentially, what we do in that [current] process is we privatise the profit,' he said. 'Multiple decades, not political cycles' With the Minns minority government looking to pick up seats at the 2027 election, the chance of Labor or the Coalition campaigning on higher water bills is small. Try telling residents without wastewater connections in Wollondilly, many of whom would not have been connected under Sydney Water's proposed works, to pay higher bills, Gould said. Loading But many, including Davies, raised concerns about the premier's proactive role in influencing IPART's decision, resulting in cheaper bills now, but risking generational inequity later. 'I see IPART making decisions that then have a political overlay of government … four-year horizons … where you might have a large utility that will think in multiple decades, not political cycles,' he said. Asked about the premier's influence, an IPART spokesperson said its draft decision recognised Sydney Water's need to increase revenue to deliver safe water and infrastructure to keep up with growth, but that 'customers should pay only what Sydney Water requires to efficiently deliver these services'. Fane is frank about Minns' letter: 'That might get us through the next election, but it won't get us through the next drought.'
The Age
3 days ago
- The Age
Pay more for your water or boil it? The unpalatable choice behind Sydney's water woes
In March 2021, as 'one-in-100-year' floods across Sydney's eastern seaboard followed hard on bushfires and drought, Sydney Water and the then-Coalition government were preparing for the worst: telling some of the 5 million users to boil their drinking water to ensure its safety. 'This is something you'd only expect in the Third World,' said one source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail private deliberations. The narrowly avoided boil water notice, exceedingly rare for a state capital, would have been the first in Sydney since 1998, when a citywide warning was issued after pathogens that can cause nausea and severe diarrhoea were detected in supply from Macquarie Street to Palm Beach. Now, Sydney Water has begun briefing stakeholders that a draft decision by pricing regulator IPART, slashing the state-owned utility's planned capital expenditure by 35 per cent, or $5.9 billion, again raises the risk of Sydneysiders having to boil water during extreme rainfall events. The problem: the state-owned corporation funds infrastructure upgrades through raising water bills, an unpalatable choice for any government, and Sydney Water was proposing a 50 per cent increase over five years. NSW Premier Chris Minns wrote to IPART in August urging it to make 'cost-of-living impacts' a first-order consideration. Released in May, IPART's draft determination proposed limiting household bill rises to 23 per cent. The final decision is expected in September, with increases taking effect on October 1. Experts and peak bodies say the fallout will be twofold: reduced expenditure will limit the renewal of ageing pipes, plants and sewers with potentially disastrous consequences, and investment in new infrastructure will not be enough to support NSW's commitment to build 263,000 homes across Sydney Water's network by 2029. The question for bill payers is this: should we get used to paying more for water to secure its supply now, or risk passing on the cost, and possible catastrophe, to future customers? And in a housing crisis, Sydney Water and its stakeholders are asking why the government and IPART have pulled the handbrake on critical infrastructure for the construction of homes. Support for housing growth Housing supply is at the centre of Sydney Water's price proposal – the areas it covers will contribute most of the state government's commitments under the National Housing Accord. Before this year's budget, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey enthused that the next 10 years would be about delivering the 'pipes and poles' for much-needed housing, saying the government's 'rule of thumb' was that anything former Labor premier Neville Wran built in the 1970s and '80s would be replaced. But the 2025-2026 budget did not deliver any significant funding to make up the expenditure reduction proposed by IPART's draft determination. Many of the experts interviewed for this article said the Minns government's housing targets were not achievable with this reduced capital. Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said IPART's proposal would deliver considerably less than 263,000, or even the 191,000 he considered realistic in the current market. 'You can't say we've got a housing supply crisis, and it's the biggest challenge that our government faces, and then say: 'Oh, but we're not going to fund Sydney Water, and we're not going to allow [it] to raise the money through rates,' ' Forrest said. Without adequate funding for infrastructure, building houses in growth areas would be irresponsible, said Stuart Khan, head of civil engineering at the University of Sydney. 'We definitely don't want to get into a situation where wastewater infrastructure lags behind housing infrastructure. We've seen that happen in parts of Sydney,' he said. Inner Sydney councils including Woollahra have already expressed concern about a possible strain on water infrastructure from new dwellings in their objections to the government's low- and mid-rise housing reforms. But LGAs such as Wollondilly on Sydney's south-western fringe are evidence of the problems that could eventuate if water infrastructure does not keep up with housing demand. The shire contains two areas rezoned in 2023 as growth areas, in the towns of Wilton and Appin. In Wilton, where the population of 5000 is expected to multiply elevenfold by 2040, 12,000 lots without wastewater connections were rezoned as residential, meaning newly built houses now have their sewage trucked out regularly. Wollondilly Shire Mayor Matt Gould said work to temporarily expand a nearby treatment plant would only be able to service three-quarters of the lots once complete. 'We're willing to do our fair share to address the housing crisis, but we have an infrastructure crisis that is preventing the capacity to ... deliver.' So what has given the state government and IPART the confidence that housing can be delivered without the infrastructure? Outdated housing forecasts, said Property Council NSW executive director Katie Stevenson, noting IPART's draft decision is based on the Greater Sydney Housing Supply forecast in 2023, which 'came well before the NSW government's major suite of housing reforms' and predicted 172,900 homes over the six years to 2029. But the modelling underpinning IPART's draft report takes a more conservative approach, estimating 120,000 additional homes will be built by 2029. Sydney Water based its pricing proposal on the government's updated commitment. Peter Davies, a professor of sustainability at Macquarie University, said the state government and IPART had rewarded this foresight by leaving the utility 'between a rock and a hard place'. A spokesperson for the Minns government rejected the 120,000 figure, saying an assessment by Infrastructure NSW had found housing from its transport-oriented development and low- and mid-rise rezoning could be accommodated 'without the need for major new water infrastructure investment'. 'Sydney Water has a responsibility to ensure that its water infrastructure pipeline does not hold up the delivery of new homes,' they said. Upgrading Sydney's ageing water infrastructure Sydney's water infrastructure is, by modern standards, ancient. The CBD's Bennelong Point Sewerage System became the first planned system to dispose of Sydney's sewage in 1857, one year before the construction of London's modern sewerage system. It still handles stormwater today. But Khan said most infrastructure went in 50 years ago. 'It's coming up towards end of life, or it's gradually going to reach end of life over the next 20 or 30 years,' he said. Stuart Wilson, deputy director of the Water Services Association of Australia said no one, including IPART and the state government, was denying the need to renew this infrastructure. 'It's an argument about in this three- to five-year period or the next three- to five-year period … For a relatively small benefit from deferring ... what risks and costs are you running with the system?' Australian Water Association chief executive Corinne Cheeseman said the main Sydney Water accountabilities that IPART's decision considers are 'to deliver clean and safe drinking water, but also to maintain our sewer system so we can protect the environment'. 'Eighty per cent of our drinking water supply comes through Prospect Water Filtration Plant,' she said. 'It's a very good water filtration plant, but we've had significant flood events in the last three years.' Flooding can overwhelm the plant's capacity and lead to increased 'turbidity' or cloudiness, as debris and, recently, bushfire ash are washed into the water supply. In its price proposal, Sydney Water proposed upgrading pre-treatment at Prospect for $697 million. IPART's draft determination proposed deferring this program, noting that Prospect had survived historical adverse events without boil-water notices. 'Weather variation creates uncertainties that may challenge Sydney Water's ability to survive sequential adverse weather events as climate change advances,' the report conceded. Cheeseman said sewage spills from clogged pipes, resulting in environmental and drinking water contamination, could become common, especially given IPART's draft proposal slashed Sydney Water's plans to renew high-risk areas of the network by between $1 billion and $1.9 billion, or between 18 and 34 per cent. Ian Wright, a professor of environmental science at Western Sydney University who worked for Sydney Water between 1989 and 2006, said more frequent flooding and drought cycles brought on by climate change justified the utility's proposal to expand the use of the once-controversial Sydney Desalination Plant drinking water within its network. The plant, which cost the state government $1.9 billion to build before it was leased privately in 2012, can supply up to 15 per cent of Sydney's drinking water, but contributed 6.7 per cent of Sydney Water's drinking water in 2023-24, according to the utility's most recent annual report. IPART's draft decision deferred most of the involved expenditure to the next price proposal, leaving Sydney's drinking water reliant for now on the ageing Warragamba Dam, which spilled this month, but was at 43.9 per cent capacity as recently as 2019. 'We've gone into a flooding cycle, but we will go back into a dry cycle ... Our last big addition to the water supply was Warragamba ... It was completed in 1960.' Who should bear the cost? Under Sydney Water's model, customers cover most capital expenditure on renewal and growth of infrastructure. Most of the experts interviewed for this article agreed water bills had been too low for too long. Simon Fane, a UTS associate professor who advises water utilities and governments nationwide, characterised the problem as 'multiple layers of people not wanting to put up bills'. 'For the last few years, the water industry has known that things were going to get more expensive, but haven't really been flagging enough.' There was a real increase of only 18 per cent in the median typical residential bill in NSW in the 20 years to 2024. WSAA executive director Adam Lovell said customers who can pay, 'should pay, but those customers who can't, there are well-established and well-proposed programs to help them into the future'. In 2024-25, the government spent $130 million on concessions for pensioners and $17 million on exempt non-profit organisations serviced by Sydney Water, and $2 million on other hardship programs across Sydney Water and Hunter Water. Loading There are alternative methods of generating funds. Wilson said in the case of new infrastructure, funding could come from the developers who benefit, while funding for both growth and renewal could come directly from the government. The latter was an idea echoed by NSW opposition water spokeswoman Steph Cooke. Cooke criticised price increases for consumers, saying IPART's 'serious rebuke of Sydney Water's proposal' had spared them an 18 per cent rise, but 'left a $6 billion hole in Sydney Water's capital works program'. 'If Labor won't allow Sydney Water to manage its business properly then it needs to invest more from the state budget to support enabling infrastructure, like water, for new homes,' she said. Macquarie University's Davies had a more radical suggestion: to tax some of the value developers receive from rezoning, which would result in multimillion-dollar windfalls. 'Essentially, what we do in that [current] process is we privatise the profit,' he said. 'Multiple decades, not political cycles' With the Minns minority government looking to pick up seats at the 2027 election, the chance of Labor or the Coalition campaigning on higher water bills is small. Try telling residents without wastewater connections in Wollondilly, many of whom would not have been connected under Sydney Water's proposed works, to pay higher bills, Gould said. Loading But many, including Davies, raised concerns about the premier's proactive role in influencing IPART's decision, resulting in cheaper bills now, but risking generational inequity later. 'I see IPART making decisions that then have a political overlay of government … four-year horizons … where you might have a large utility that will think in multiple decades, not political cycles,' he said. Asked about the premier's influence, an IPART spokesperson said its draft decision recognised Sydney Water's need to increase revenue to deliver safe water and infrastructure to keep up with growth, but that 'customers should pay only what Sydney Water requires to efficiently deliver these services'. Fane is frank about Minns' letter: 'That might get us through the next election, but it won't get us through the next drought.'
SBS Australia
04-07-2025
- SBS Australia
ACT chooses 'care over cruelty' by raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14
In a historic move, the Australian Capital Territory has become the first jurisdiction in the country to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 – a significant reform celebrated by legal advocates, health experts and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders. From July 1, children under 14 in the ACT can no longer be charged, prosecuted, or imprisoned under the criminal legal system, except for a limited number of excluded offences. The change comes as part of a two-stage reform passed in 2023, which first raised the age from 10 to 12 and now to 14. The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) welcomed the milestone, commending the ACT Government for a decision grounded in research and community wellbeing. 'This reform will keep more children where they belong: in their homes, communities, schools, playgrounds and sports fields, supported to thrive rather than being dragged through court and languishing in youth prisons,' ALS chief executive Karly Warner said. 'Evidence shows the younger a child is at first contact with the legal system, the more likely they are to keep coming back into contact with police and courts and to experience adult imprisonment. "That's why raising the age of legal responsibility to 14 is a commonsense move not only for children but for all members of our communities.' While praising the ACT's leadership, Ms Warner urged further reform, calling for the removal of exceptions that still allow children to be criminalised under certain circumstances. The change follows decades of sustained advocacy from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, health professionals and legal experts, who have long highlighted the harms of early criminalisation, particularly for Indigenous children, who remain disproportionately affected by the system. A call for national action Advocacy organisations, including Change the Record, the Justice and Equity Centre and the Human Rights Law Centre, also welcomed the reform, and called on all other jurisdictions to follow suit without delay. 'Every child deserves to grow with connection, not be locked up in prison cells,' Jade Lane, Change the Record chief executive, said. 'The ACT reforms are a crucial step toward choosing care over cruelty, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who are disproportionately targeted by police and the so-called justice system.' Ms Lane urged other jurisdictions to end harmful, punitive youth justice practices and invest instead in community-led solutions that support young people. 'This change in the ACT signals a well-overdue time to invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to thrive, not trap them in cycles of criminalisation,' she said. Maggie Munn, First Nations director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the reform sets a precedent for the rest of the nation. 'Our kids deserve to thrive, not be caged in police watch houses and prison cells. This is a positive step forward which means that more children in the ACT will be cared for, rather than pipelined into prison,' Munn said. 'We call on every state and territory government to do the right thing for kids and communities, and raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, with no exceptions.' Chief executive of the Justice and Equity Centre Jonathon Hunyor told NITV that locking up children cruels their chances and takes them away from positive influences. "What we do is place kids in a situation where they build criminal capital – they go to the university of crime," he said. "They get taught that they're criminals and told that they're criminals – and that's exactly what we produce. "So it's very easy to talk tough and be all hairy-chested about being tough on crime, but the fact is, it's not working, it's never worked, and it's never going to work. "Unless we actually invest in kids, we invest in communities, we invest in solutions, we're just saying the same stuff over and over again." Australia still lagging behind international standards Despite the ACT's progress, Australia remains out of step with international human rights obligations. The United Nations has repeatedly called on Australia to raise the minimum age to 14 'without exception,' citing evidence that children aged 10 to 13 lack the developmental capacity to be held criminally responsible. Mr Hunyor said that raising the age is a catalyst for changing systems, taking the emphasis from criminalisation, from police and prisons, to where it can make a difference. "And that's intervening early, supporting children and families from a much younger age than even 10 so that problems that lead them to commit criminal offences don't materialise or, if they do, that kids can get back on the right track," he said. "So it's all the obvious stuff that we should be investing in community services, after school activities, mentoring for young people, mental health support and there's support for families. "We address things like homelessness and a lack of housing, disability supports that we need in our communities "They're all the things that we know are going to make a difference." Communities had a right to be angry that government is not investing in them and not investing in people's capacity to do better, Mr Hunyor said. "Instead, we park at the bottom of the cliff, we wait for kids to fall off, we chuck them in the paddy wagon, and we drive them back up and let them out again, and the whole cycle starts again," he said. "It's just a ridiculous approach that we're taking. "And until more people look at the evidence like they are in the ACT, we're not going to get better outcomes." In NSW, Queensland, and South Australia, the age of criminal responsibility remains at 10. The former Northern Territory Labor government raised the age to 12 but when the Country Liberal Party swept to power in August last year, one of the first act's of Lia Finocchiaro's new government was to lower it back to 10. Victoria has also kept the age at 10, and while that state has passed legislation to raise it to 12; the change has not yet been implemented and also includes new police powers targeting children as young as 10 and breaks a promise from former Premier Dan Andrews to raise the age to 14 by 2027. Tasmania has committed to raising the age to 14 by 2029, while in Western Australia, the government has voted to raise the age to 14, but implementation is still pending. 'Kids deserve a childhood free from cages and isolation,' Ms Lane said. 'It's time the rest of the country caught up.'
