The Water Directorate's Annual General Meeting was held on Thursday 10 November 2011. A quorum was achieved with 7 eligible attendees and all requirements under the Incorporated Associations Act were satisfied.
Stewart McLeod , Chair of the Water Directorate, provided the following summary:
The year was spent responding to a number of reports prepared by the NWC, the Productivity Commission and Infrastructure Australia. Overall, we have stated the position of LWUs well but there is more work to be done to avoid further criticism from Federal agencies.
The State Government’s response to the LWU Reform Inquiry has still not been released and now is not any closer with the election of a new government in March.
The finalisation of the joint WLMP was a huge milestone and the final report submission is currently being completed. Overall the WLMP saved a significant amount of water totalling 5.518 million litres per year.
Changes on the Executive Committee included the retirement of four representatives at the end of 2010 and the election of four new representatives: Greg Finlayson, Russell Deans, David Steller and Greg McDonald.
Gary Mitchell’s report noted the following:
There was one new member council in 2010/11 – Wyong Shire Council. This brought the membership to 95/103 potential members or 92%.
Two projects were undertaken and one was distributed to member councils: the Fire Flow Design Guidelines was released in June and the Land Matters Guidelines- Stage 1 will be released shortly.
The joint Water Loss Management Program continued to be a major focus of the Water Directorate and the LGSA during the year. In recent weeks a lot of time has been spent on the finalisation and publication of the Final Progress Report to the Australian Government.
Tenders were called for a joint project for the Water Directorate and the Roads and Transport Directorate titled Land Matters Guidelines, as discussed above, to address a range of land acquisition issues common and specific to the two Directorates’ member Councils.
The Executive Officer assisted the LGSA as a judge of the Environment Awards.
The Executive Officer attended various conferences and meetings on behalf of the Executive Committee during the year including hosting the Water Managers’ Forum in Orange in 2010.
During the year Wayne Beatty became the 8th Executive Committee member to attain 10 years of voluntary service. Congratulations to Wayne and all the six remaining original Executive Committee members.
The minutes of the AGM and audited finances for the year 2010-11 are available below.
