eFlash #641

eFlash #641 New

Date: 14-Jan-2026

New / Hot Topics

Essentials Webinar: Human-Centred System Design

Join us at 10am on Thursday, 12 February for our first webinar for 2026 where Ciara Sterling, CEO of Thriving Communities Australia (TCA) will explain how water systems can cause unintentional harm or be deliberately weaponised through billing, debt, privacy breaches and account controls, and how more preventative, human-centred system design can strengthen safety, trust and customer outcomes.

More info and register here.

Environment Forum

The qldwater Environment Forum brings together stakeholders across the water sector: local councils, SEQ service providers, State Government, Universities, and Catchment and River Trust groups, to delve into what offsets really look like in practice and how water service providers can create measurable environmental outcomes.

Aligned with our 2026 theme, Offsets and Outcomes: Delivering Environmental Value Through Water Services, the event will showcase practical examples, emerging approaches, and opportunities for collaboration.

This in person event will take place on Thursday, 26 February at Redlands IndigiScapes Centre and Cafe in Capalaba, kindly hosted by Redland City Council.

Water Skills Forum 2026

Save the date: Thursday, 19 March for the annual Water Skills Forum. The theme for 2026 is "Training Today, Sustaining Tomorrow".

The event will include pre-forum drinks on 18 March.

More details here.

Some sponsorship opportunities are still available – please contact Georgina Davis for more information.

Download the Sponsorship Prospectus

Emergency Contacts for flood areas

Our thoughts are with our members affected by the North Queensland monsoon trough and flooding. Below is a list of websites and other contacts to assist with disaster recovery.

The Water Supply Regulator (WSR) Office incident reporting hotline (1300 596 709); if the incident hotline is not answered immediately, please leave a message and confirm by email to drinkingwater.reporting@dlgwv.qld.gov.au. They will contact you as soon as possible.

And just a reminder that the Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers (this includes the Drinking Water Regulator) has updated its email address to the new departmental name so you will now notice that emails use the ‘dlgwv.qld.gov.au’ email address instead of the previous ‘rdmw.qld.gov.au’.

Queensland Government Disaster Management

Queensland Government Disaster Support and Recovery

Rural Financial Counselling Service North Queensland

Queensland Agriculture’s Disaster Impact Survey

QRIDA Free and Confidential Mental Health Support

Biosecurity and Flooding

During recovery from flooding, biosecurity is a key priority to protect the community and community interests from weeds, pests and diseases.

Information for agribusiness, including access to emergency fodder and ways to uphold the General Biosecurity Obligation during an extreme weather event can be found at North and North West Queensland floods—support for agribusiness | Business Queensland. Some plants and diseases do best during and following wet conditions, and there is a Livestock diseases following floods factsheet available for primary producers in your area to understand what to look out for.

Floodwaters are a major way that weeds and pests can be transported into new farming areas and there is more information available at Biosecurity matters after prolonged flooding events - Farm Biosecurity with useful resources for producers experiencing prolonged weather events.

Report any suspected Prohibited invasive plants you may sight to the relevant department within council or to Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23. Biosecurity Queensland works with government agencies, industry and community groups to manage issues related to invasive plants and animals that emerge from natural disasters.

You may wish to also notify Weed Spotters Network Queensland. The Weed Spotters Network Queensland aims to find, identify and document those new occurrences of potential weeds at an early stage so that preventative actions can be taken.

Yellow crazy ants are easily spread by floodwaters. Please keep an eye out when you are cleaning up after the flooding and stay safe. While yellow crazy ants do not bite, they do spray formic acid from their abdomens as a defence mechanism, which can irritate or blind humans and animals. The Wet Tropics Management Authority can provide assistance with suspected yellow crazy ants – please report any colonies at Yellow Crazy Ant Eradication Program | Wet Tropics Management Authority.

Price Monitoring Investigation: Unitywater and Urban Utilities

The Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) have published submissions from Unitywater and Urban Utilities relating to their forecast prices for 2026-27, water bill impacts and details on their productivity and efficiency measures.

This follows a direction from the Queensland Government to conduct a price monitoring investigation into the monopoly business activities of Unitywater and Urban Utilities for the price monitoring period of 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2030.

The investigation will be undertaken in two parts:

Part 1: An interim report in May 2026 — for the period 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027
Part 2: A draft report in December 2026, followed by a final report in April 2027 — for the period 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2030

The next step in the process will be the development of the interim report.

qldwater provided feedback to the QCA in response to the investigation, raising serious concerns about utilities' capacity to fund essential infrastructure renewal at a time when the sector is facing an escalating infrastructure renewal cliff, compounding costs of deferred investment, rising workforce, electricity and insurance expenses, growing cybersecurity obligations, higher construction and materials costs and the increasing burden of regulatory compliance. Read our submission here.