[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Transforming a Water Business, Mackay Regional Council, QLD, Digital Innovation in Local Government. National Winner]
[Image changes to show David Brooker, Transforming a Water Business, Mackay Regional Council, QLD]
We"ve won the award for change in the water business and we"ve done that through changing the way that we collect data to fundamentally change the cost of delivering services,
[Image changes to show the screen of a handheld device, opened on a site showing information on water consumption for a property]
And the way that we engage with our community around how they use their water and sewage services.
[Image changes to show the screen of another smaller handheld device, opened on a site showing information on water consumption for a property and then moves back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
Council recognised that the cost to providing services was escalating and it just wasn"t sustainable to keep doing business the same way that it's always been done, and so council's approached looking at changing the way that we do business,
[Image changes to show the camera zoomed in on a water metre]
so really, really focused on reducing the cost of infrastructure, which then leads to cost of providing water services to the community.
[Image changes to show a lady potting plants and then moves back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
All of our 40,000 customers have an automatic water metre reading device on their water metre so that we can see, in real time, how much water's being used, and then we take that information, analyse it and we actually provide it back to the customer.
[Image changes to show the camera zooming in on a bar graph that's showing the different levels and costs of monthly water consumption]
We"ve dropped peak water consumption by at least ten per cent. But more importantly, we"ve changed the decision making in the business, which means we"ve changed the forward price path,
[Image has changed back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
so over the next ten years our forward price path, per customer, is five hundred dollars less per customer, per year than it would have been.
[Image changes to show an automatic water metre reading device on a water metre and then moves back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
One of the real opportunities for a water utility and local government in general is actually just to recognise and to share and to be able to learn off each other, and so we"re lucky enough to have learnt off a much better water businesses that have gone before us and that are doing great things elsewhere and we feel that it's our obligation to also share that information to others.
[Image changes to show different pictures of water metres each fitted with an automatic water metre reading device]
In local government the drivers of doing a good job in local government are a little bit different in that it's not always about making big profits and things like that,
[Image has changed back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
it's actually that recognition and our staff get a lot out of the recognition by their peers and that means a lot to them.
[Image changes to show an automatic water metre reading device on a water metre and then moves back to show David seated and talking to the camera]
It's just validation that what we have been achieving is of value and has been recognised by others as being an achievement.
[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Transforming a Water Business, Mackay Regional Council, QLD, Digital Innovation in Local Government. National Winner]