CANEGROWERS Media Release                                  

31 May 2011:  Arbitrary water increases a joke: CANEGROWERS outraged by govt decision                                                                                                         

Cane growers are outraged after receiving news from the Queensland Government that they intend to hike prices for water - without robust data to back the decision.  According to peak sugarcane growers’ group CANEGROWERS, this will be another massive dent in the profitability of thousands of Australian cane growers, who are already suffering from back-to-back climatic events which has already crippled their cash flow. 

“The price increases announced by government yesterday are arbitrary at best,” says an angry Steve Greenwood, CEO of CANEGROWERS.  “They are not based on any facts - as the analysis has not been completed. It would appear that the government has prejudged the outcome of the Queensland Competition Authority investigation,” he said today.
Greenwood says that cane growers were heavily involved in Sunwater’s local meetings up and down the coast last month, at which they were assured that work done to date is very preliminary and a much more detailed analysis is required.

But on the back of this announcement, CANEGROWERS started crunching  numbers, and preliminary calculations have shown that the average cane grower in Mareeba and the Burdekin channel schemes are looking at an increase of around $5,000 a year for their water as a result of this decision.  CANEGROWERS says cane growers in Mackay are looking at a 15% increase in their water bills - almost five times that of inflation; Maryborough faces an increase of $3000 per year in water bills and Bundaberg and Mackay around a $1500 increase in their yearly water bills.

“Unnecessarily high water prices are an impost growers really don’t need at the moment,” says Greenwood.

The sugarcane industry has just come through the worst season on record in 2010, followed by floods and Cyclone Yasi and a prolonged wet start to 2011 which will again cripple production in 2011. 

Over 60% of Australia’s sugarcane crop is irrigated, making this a big issue for cane growers who are not seeing the same water pricing leniency as those in south east Queensland.

“Government has limited SEQ’s water price increases to CPI, but rural schemes will take the real hit with increases of up to five times CPI, with no sound data to base this on. Many of our members are outraged.

“Irrigators having to deal with the uncertainty of having the review extended yet again is punishment enough, without government making arbitrary pricing decisions.”

Media comment: Steve Greenwood  |  CANEGROWERS CEO  |  0488 721 156
More information: Suzi Moore  |  CANEGROWERS Communications  |  0427 641 239 or 07 3864 6444