What it does
The Water and Sewerage Corporation Act 2012 establishes a single State-owned corporation to consolidate the provision of water and sewerage services across Tasmania. It replaces the previous structure of three regional corporations and a common services corporation by vesting their assets, rights, liabilities and employees in the new Corporation (s 3). The Act’s primary purpose is to provide water and sewerage functions in Tasmania (s 3(a)). It achieves this through a statutory framework that governs the Corporation’s formation, share capital, corporate governance, financial operations and accountability. Part 2 creates the Corporation as a proprietary company limited by shares under the Corporations Act (s 5) and sets out its principal objectives: to efficiently provide water and sewerage functions, to encourage water conservation and re-use, and to be a successful business operating in accordance with good commercial practice while delivering sustainable returns to member councils and cost-efficient services to customers (s 6). Those objectives are declared of equal importance (s 6(2)). The Act also facilitates the transfer of water and sewerage assets, rights, liabilities and employees from the former corporations and councils to the Corporation. Part 3 empowers the Minister to make transfer orders by notice in the Gazette, which vest assets and liabilities automatically without further conveyance, and transfer employees with preserved conditions (ss 28, 30, 35, 36). The Corporation is declared not to represent the councils or the Crown, and the Crown and councils are not liable for its debts unless a council gives a guarantee (s 7). The Act modifies the application of the Corporations Act by excluding the Corporation from certain chapters (e.g. Chapter 6 on takeovers) and declaring it an excluded matter for those provisions (s 8). It also restricts ownership of shares to councils and the Crown, prohibits disposal of shares, and limits share issues to existing members pro rata or to the Crown (s 10). The Act addresses dividend policy, requiring the Board to determine a dividend policy that establishes the aggregate amount payable to members who are not the Crown, with adequate provision for future capital and operational expenditure (s 21). Dividends cannot be paid to the Crown (s 21(4)). The Act was amended in 2016 to align superannuation provisions with the Public Sector Superannuation Reform Act 2016 (s 37), and in 2018 to remove the requirement for a Crown nominee as director, to allow the Crown to hold shares, and to repeal sections on appointed directors and Crown representation (ss 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 42). Section 43A was inserted in 2018 to facilitate governance changes via a memorandum of understanding, allowing the members to amend the constitution, shareholders’ letter of expectation, and approve share issues to implement that memorandum, subject to conditions.