With the Federal Election now behind us, I think it’s worth picking up on the comments made by Mayor Vic Pennisi when he was interviewed by David Iliffe on ABC Southern Queensland Breakfast on 29 April.  

The most revealing statement in the interview relates to the potential impact on rates of the Council’s investment in Emu Swamp Dam.  POW! has been asking the Council to answer this question since FEBRUARY 2021 – yes, that’s more than a year ago – and Council has refused to answer the question or provide a rates impact assessment.  So hats off to David Iliffe showing the skills of a professional journalist in actually getting an answer from the Mayor on that question. 

David Iliffe:                 Will that $3.5 million result in a rise in rates to pay for that?

Mayor Vic Pennisi:     There will be an increase in cost.

So there we go ratepayers – Mayor Pennisi has finally admitted on air that Council’s investment in Emu Swamp Dam means that “there will be an increase in cost”.  Not an answer that could be described as music to ratepayers’ ears.  Of course as yet we don’t know how much the increase will be, but then again we also have no idea what the final cost of Council’s investment in the dam will be.  Just look at the legal costs already prematurely incurred, the potential for cost overruns and further increases to the construction estimate given projected inflation rates. 

We also don’t know what the annual cost to the Council will be.  The current estimate of annual costs is from 2019, so if it’s also 250% higher (like the current estimate for dam’s construction cost against budget), then it could be more than half a million dollars a year.  And SDRC will pay this annual cost even if no water from Emu Swamp Dam is ever used.

I wonder how many ratepayers would consider that money well spent?  There have been numerous examples of belt-tightening across the region as SDRC tries to balance its budget.  Strangely though, no-one in Council seems to think that the money being splashed on Emu Swamp Dam could be better spent.

As POW! keeps saying, but with zero response from Council or others, the State Government modeling presented to SDRC showed that Emu Swamp Dam would have been empty in 2019.  So words of one syllable here:  IT – DOES - NOT - DROUGHT - PROOF - THE - TOWN.  Ratepayers across the whole of the Southern Downs are now at risk of a rate rise for an investment that would not have prevented water carting in the last drought.  Value for money?  I think the answer is a resounding NO!