Key stakeholders back call for increased water funding

Council’s request for increased government funding for the Cairns Water Security Stage 1 (CWSS1) project has received support from key stakeholders.

Advance Cairns, FNQ Regional Organisation of Councils, Cairns Chamber of Commerce, Regional Development Australia Tropical North and Tourism Tropical North Queensland have all backed Council’s call for the $472 million project to be fully funded by the State and Federal Governments.

The project is Council’s number one advocacy priority and will deliver additional water to meet the needs of a growing population and also provide critical risk mitigation for the city’s water supply during periods of natural disaster.

The State and Federal Governments have already committed $107.5 million each in funding to this critical infrastructure project, based on the previous cost estimate of $248 million that was established on the early design considerations and the economic situation when the preliminary business case was commissioned in 2021.

Given the significant escalation in project cost and with Council’s (and the broader community’s) capacity to fund this increase compromised due to the impacts of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper, a formal request has been made to the Queensland and Australian Governments increase their funding commitments to $236 million each.

Council is also asking for the increased commitments to be provisioned in the upcoming 2024/25 State and Federal budgets.

Even prior to Cyclone Jasper, the Cairns community was facing significant cost of living pressures with the rising costs of mortgage repayments, rent, insurance, and day to day essentials all impacting household budgets and business profitability.

Joint State and Federal funding of the CWSS1 project would deliver cost of living relief equivalent to $488 per household per year for the next 15 years, at time when it is desperately needed.

Advocacy activities to support this request, led by the Mayor, have been ongoing and have included numerous meetings, discussions and correspondence with State and Federal ministers, local State and Federal MPs, shadow ministers, departmental representatives and other key stakeholders.

The request was also discussed with Queensland Cabinet when Community Cabinet was held in Cairns on 28 February and with the Queensland Shadow Cabinet during their recent visit to Cairns on 19 February.