WATER SECURITY AND ZERO CARBON WATER IS A PRECIOUS RESOURCE HEALTHY PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT WATER IS ESSENTIAL TO SUSTAIN LIFE PROSPEROUS ECONOMIES WATER UNDERPINS ECONOMIC PROSPERITY Corporate Plan GREEN AND ACTIVE COMMUNITIES WATER UNDERPINS LIVEABILITY 2020–2025 OUR REGION LEGEND TRADITIONAL LAND OWNERS DJA DJA WURRUNG CLANS ABORIGINAL CORPORATION Cohuna TAUNGURUNG LAND AND WATERS COUNCIL (ABORIGINAL CORPORATION) (TLAWC) MURRAY RIVER YORTA YORTA NATION Leitchville ABORIGINAL CORPORATION Macorna CURRENTLY NOT REPRESENTED BY A Gunbower REGISTERED ABORIGINAL CORPORATION Pyramid Hill WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS Echuca CAMPASPE Boort COLIBAN Mitiamo Mysia GOULBURN GROUNDWATER Jarklin Lockington Borung LODDON Wychitella Rochester MURRAY Korong Vale Dingee WIMMERA Serpentine Wedderburn SEWER Elmore Raywood WATER NON POTABLE Inglewood WATER (UNTREATED) Bridgewater Goornong RIVER AVOCA RIVER Sebastian RECYCLED WATER CAMPASPE Marong LODDON RIVER Bendigo Tarnagulla Bealiba Axedale Laanecoorie LAKE EPPALOCK Dunolly Heathcote Maldon Harcourt Tooborac Castlemaine Campbells Creek Chewton Elphinstone Mildura Newstead Fryerstown Taradale Guildford Malmsbury MALMSBURY Kyneton Echuca LAURISTON SheppartonShepppartpar oon WodongaWodoododoonganga UPPER COLIBAN Tylden HorshamHorsham BendigoBenBeenndigddiigo WangarattaW StawellStawell Castlemaine NORTH AraratArarat Kyneton victoriavictoria HamiltonHamilton 08,000 16,000 32,000 BallaratBallarat MelbourneMelbourne BairnsdaleBairnsdale Trentham GeelongGeelong SaleSale METRES Portland MorwellMorwell Warrnambool ColacColac COLIBAN WATER | CORPORATE PLAN 2020–2025 CONTENTS OUR CHALLENGE 2 OUR RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) 3 WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO 4 STRATEGY 2030 8 Strategic direction 1: Water security and zero carbon 8 Strategic direction 2: Healthy people and environment 14 Strategic direction 3: Prosperous economies 22 Strategic direction 4: Green and active communities 28 Business enablers 32 OUR FINANCIALS 33 APPENDICES 39 This photo was taken prior to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions and 1. Strategies, Drivers and Obligations 39 requirements of physical distancing and face coverings. 2. Risk Management 40 We respectfully acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as 3. Minister’s Letter of Expectations 41 the Traditional Owners and custodians 4. Key Performance Indicators and Targets 42 of the land and water on which all 5. Detailed Financial Outlooks 45 Australians rely. 6. Statement of Prices and Tariffs 52 We pay our respects to Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung, Yorta Yorta, Barapa Barapa, their Elders past, present and future, as Traditional Owners and the custodians of the land and water on which we rely and operate. We acknowledge and respect the continued cultural, social and spiritual connections of all Aboriginal Victorians. We also acknowledge the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and their connections with lands and waters, and recognise and value their inherent responsibility to care for and protect them for thousands of generations. We acknowledge Aboriginal Victorians as Traditional Owners and, in the spirit of reconciliation, we remain committed to working in partnership with Traditional Owners to ensure meaningful, ongoing contributions to the future of land and water management. COLIBAN WATER | CORPORATE PLAN 2020–2025 1 OUR CHALLENGE The millennium drought hit our region hard. Enormous capital Enhanced modelling of climate change scenarios will help us investment was required to ensure continuity of water supply to mitigate the impacts of climate change by incorporating our 49 disperse towns. Significant price increases were modelling into long-term asset planning. unfortunately unavoidable and debt soared as we met our Water is essential to sustain life. Our planned water and sewer community’s critical needs. Following the millennium drought, we committed to customers that our financial performance would upgrades will maintain human health and enhance improve. Since 2016 we have repaid over $35 million of borrowings environmental health. We will further improve our understanding and improved our credit rating, and this has reduced our interest of the communities we operate in and offer customers new ways repayments. Customer prices have generally increased less than of interacting with us. Improved relationships with our traditional inflation over the past five years, improving affordability. owners Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung, Yorta Yorta and Barapa Barapa will assist their economic self-determination and we will Population growth and climate change will affect every service better understand how these traditional owners value water. we deliver, and this Corporate Plan 2020-2025 foreshadows major changes to the way we do business. Communities expect More than ever, we have a key role to play beyond core water and high levels of service and we will work hard to underpin regional sewer services. We are a key enabler of regional prosperity prosperity. Some key assets are ageing and others are uniquely working in partnership with community groups, major customers exposed to large regional climate impacts, including bushfires. and local councils. We will establish innovative pricing options We must significantly increase our capital investment to respond for major customers to optimise the use of our assets and to climate change, population growth and community improve our operating efficiency, ensuring we balance pricing, environmental expectations. Our debt will unavoidably increase service and debt levels. but by planning early we aim to avoid a sudden spike in customer bills. Due to our harsh climate, our customers have told us we must be better supporting liveability within our region. Communities Following extensive customer and community engagement in the value green open spaces, and we will enhance opportunities for lead up to our Pricing Submission 2018-2023, our Board in 2018 community recreation on our land and assets. endorsed Strategy 2030 building upon our vision of Water to Live, Grow and Enjoy. This bold Strategy outlines four strategic The passion and skills of our staff are fundamental to the directions: achievement of the exciting future envisaged in Strategy 2030. • Water security and zero carbon We will continue to upskill and motivate our staff so that they can • Healthy people and environment apply their knowledge to the wicked problems of climate change and population growth. Our staff will be assisted in their crucial • Prosperous economies roles by best practice technology within the office and across the • Green and active communities region. Together we will apply a zero tolerance to work related For the first time, our Corporate Plan responds directly to the injuries and continue to promote staff health, safety and exciting future envisaged by Strategy 2030, and sets achievement wellbeing. targets directly related to the four Strategic Directions. This Corporate Plan is compliant with government guidelines and Water security is our core purpose and this year we will progress reflects the direction of Water for Victoria. We have also linked long term supply and demand initiatives. An internal carbon our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to the United Nations price will prioritise investments to help us achieve zero carbon by Sustainable Development Goals as we know we can be a local 2050 in alignment with government policy. leader in global sustainability. LUCY ROFFEY DAMIAN WELLS Chairperson Managing Director 2 COLIBAN WATER | CORPORATE PLAN 2020–2025 OUR RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) As an essential service, we have focussed firstly on acting swiftly, safely and responsibly to help prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). We set up an Incident Management Team (IMT) to lead our coronavirus (COVID-19) response and preparedness activities. We took early decisions to cease non-essential travel and to ensure organisational readiness for a range of business consequence scenarios in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19). Our key priorities continue to be protecting our people while delivering essential water services to support our communities. Recognising the economic impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on our communities, we have extended our hardship provisions, offered financial counselling, and communicated these changes to our communities. While we necessarily closed our physical customer interface points, we have continued a strong focus on customer engagement through phone and digital channels. We also acted quickly to implement a practice of paying contractor and supplier invoices within a week of receiving them to ensure local businesses could keep their cash flows as strong as possible. It has been pleasing to see some contractors extend this arrangement down the supply chain. We transitioned our workforce to remote working smoothly without interruption to customer service and major projects such as the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant upgrades. On average, about 80 per cent of our staff are working from home with only 5 per cent working from their regular office or site. Staff received regular updates from the IMT, and a focus was placed on the wellbeing and mental health of all our employees. We have maintained our routine of Wednesday morning ‘all-staff’ meetings through moving to a digital format which has worked to keep our people well informed about business priorities and other important information. We continue to communicate the government’s messaging and keep our communities up to date with any restrictions