I have a question: Who at IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) actually reads the submissions for Special Rate Variations?
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Maitland City Council has submitted documents to IPART for consideration and I noticed that there are at least 1354 pages in the submission and that does not include private submissions.
For comparison, The Hobbit has 320 pages, War of the Worlds has 224 pages, War and Peace has 1222 pages, A Tale of Two Cities has 544 pages, Oliver Twist has 500 pages, Grapes of Wrath has 619 pages, one complete volume of The Lord of the Rings has 1168 pages and the Bible has 1281 pages.
Unfortunately for IPART staff, the council’s literary effort is less interesting than the books mentioned, but who at IPART is actually going to carefully read this great compilation of facts, figures and statistics and make an informed decision?
And how long will it take to read?
Since there are 31 other councils that have submitted applications, does IPART actually read every document?
There are about 130 staff at IPART and most of them won’t have time.
For example, I stumbled on Maitland City Council’s stated intention to employ five extra staff from 2015/16 for six years.
Council does not give a value to this proposed increase of staff, would IPART calculate the cost?
Would they have the staff?
I estimate this equates to $6.3 million if their wages were $60,000 per year.
The actual cost will be higher.
Will IPART find it? This document was about two thirds down the list from the top.
- Doug Preston, Bolwarra