On 7 May 2014, the Water Supply Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 passed through parliament. Amongst changes to the “SEQ Utility Model,” water meter installation (likely to be reversed in part as of March 2015) and recycled water provisions, the amendments removed many statutory management plans and essentially replaced them with a Key Performance Indicator Framework.
qldwater strongly advocated for regulatory simplification for many years and while the solution is not considered perfect, it represents a substantial improvement.
Data collection for the new indicator framework commenced from 1 July 2014 and the first reports were due in October 2015. SWIM and SWIMLocal have been modified to deal with the new indicators and a new interface (SWIMAnnual) has been to developed which greatly simplifies the data collection and lodgement process. Training in the use of these systems took place from May 2015.
While Total Management Plans and Strategic Asset Management Plans are no longer required by legislation, many service providers continue to use these documents to support the KPI process. qldwater will continue to work through its technical reference group to develop useful guidelines/ templates for members.