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Queensland act
This Queensland law restructures how water and wastewater (sewage) services are delivered to homes and businesses across South-East Queensland (SEQ).
Households and businesses receiving water or wastewater services across South-East Queensland — essentially anyone who gets a water bill or is connected to sewerage in the greater Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redland, Moreton Bay, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, Somerset, or Noosa areas.
Local councils in those areas, which previously ran water and sewerage services directly. This law transfers those responsibilities away from councils to new joint entities.
Three new water authorities (called 'distributor-retailers') created by this law:
From 1 July 2010, customers who previously dealt with their local council for water and wastewater services automatically became customers of the relevant distributor-retailer instead. Nothing needed to be done — it happened automatically.
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Direct links to the current provisions in South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) Act 2009.
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View on official registerSourced from Queensland Legislation (legislation.qld.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
From 1 July 2012, Gold Coast, Logan, and Redland city councils were given back direct responsibility for delivering services in their areas (the Southern authority wound back).
Each distributor-retailer:
Each authority is governed by a board made up of:
The chairperson must always be an independent member.
Local councils retain some oversight — they can give written directions to the authority if they believe it's in the public interest, but only following a formal process.
Each distributor-retailer must have a participation agreement with its member councils, covering:
These agreements must be published online so the public can see them.
Unless changed earlier, each authority technically expires after 99 years, at which point assets and liabilities return to the participating councils.