Allconnex, the Gold Coast City Council water department by another name.
Sure they’ve got different names and sure they have different logos and hey, a quick search of companies house yields they’ve got different owners – so by all accounts you would think they’re independant BUT YOU’D BE WRONG.
Allconnex is just the Gold Coast City Council Water Department by another name!
…but don’t take my word for it, just read on and see for yourself.
Remeber a few years back (2009) when your Rates bill from the council included your water bill… and the combined total would have been under the $1000 mark for 6 months (mine was $890)?
Of course everything is subject to inflationary pressures and the cost of your rates and water is no exception so one must reasonably expect your bill to rise – however the psychological $1000 barrier is just around the corner and the Gold Coast City Council cannot afford a public outcry should the bill rise above this politicaly sensitive mark. So what do they do?
‘Jetson’ the ballooning water component of the Combined Water and Rates bill.
But you cannot just dispose of a huge portion of your revenue, so what’s the next best thing. Have a quick chat to the neighbouring councils and the GCCC an two others get together and set up a ‘independant company’ called Allconnex. Sounds OK so far..!
Come 2010 and time to pay my rates bill and wow… it’s dropped down to $540… yipee. A few weeks later the Water bill from ‘Allconnex arrives and wow… it’s sits at a whopping $750… Now it doesn’t take a mathematician to add the two together and get $1290! That’s a huge leap from the earlier combined bill!
On closer inspection of the bank details on the Allconnex bill, one finds that the details ARE EXACTLY THE SAME as before and the Gold Coast City Council is collecting both! Separate company my arse!
On trundles 2011 and more ‘independant’ Rates and Water bills from GCCC and Allconnex respectively. A modest rise in rates to $590 and a staggering rise in water to $890. So now the singular component of water costs the same as my combined rates and water did just 2 years ago…! That also means we’re approaching that politically sensitive $1000 mark again, so what does the ‘independant’ Allconnex do..?
Easy, split your water bill into two components – one for GCCC water and one for State Water charges, and make the later twice the size of the former. Classic example of the GCCC passing the buck onto the State!
So I now have a GCCC water bill of around $300 and a State water bill of something closer to $600. But you’ll never guess where this ‘State’ water charge gets paid to… yes, you’ve guessed it – Allconnex (aka the GCCC).
Lets take it one more step and look ahead to 2012 and the expected water bill. The ‘state water charge’ will be closer to that magical $1000 mark and Allconnex will be faced with another political decision BUT WHO WILL THEY PASS THE BUCK TO THIS TIME? Perhaps the Federal Government, an overseas ‘company’, rename it as an Energy Resource and split it again… the choices are endless and the mind boggles…
So don’t be telling me that it’s all separate and that GCCC has no say or control in what Allconnex does, nor tell me that the GCCC does not gets it filthy paws on the generated revenue. They began the same mob and they’re still the same mob.
Period.
Tags: government, water bills
… and the plot thickens! I have just heard from a GCCC employee, that Allconnex is a failure and that the GCCC is going to retake ownership of it!
SO, it sounds like the multi million dollar experiment has been an utter waste of time with us the taxpayers being the looser.
AND the council has the temerity to bleat on about rising water costs… yet the real rise in cost is due to their stupid mistakes aka setting up Allconnex.