Hunter Water kicks off community panel to shape 2025-2030 pricing proposal

This week marks the start of participation in Hunter Water’s representative community panel to shape the future services provided by Hunter Water between now and the end of the decade.

The panel is one of the final engagement stages for Hunter Water’s submission to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), which will set Hunter Water’s prices from 2025 to 2030 and include deliberation on Hunter Water’s service levels and investments that are a priority for our customers and community.

Hunter Water has already heard from almost 6,000 people so far this year about what is important to them via earlier prioritisation surveys, bill simulations and focus groups. Now, we are commencing our third stage of engagement to inform our pricing proposal.

Hunter Water Executive Manager Strategy and Engagement, Emma Berry, is looking forward to the opportunity to engage with the community and gain insights from the panel, which is statistically representative of Hunter Water’s customer and community, and selected at random to remove biases.

“Commencing this week our 45-person representative panel will meet on six separate days over coming months to consider evidence, deliberate, make trade-offs, and provide consensus recommendations on behalf of the entire community,” said Ms Berry.

“One of the main tasks for the panel will be helping us to strike the right balance of customer affordability and providing the services our customers and community want from us.

“We need our community’s help to determine how we balance providing reliable, high-quality services and securing our water future, protecting the environment and creating a positive legacy for future generations, while also keeping water bills affordable,” said Ms Berry.

The Hunter Water community panel was formed by sending invitations to register interest in being involved to 12,000 randomly selected customers and community members in the Lower Hunter region. The final panel has been independently selected to reflect the diversity of the region.

More information about Hunter Water’s pricing proposal can be found at www.hunterwater.com.au/haveyoursay/2025-2030-price-proposal