In mid-November, nearly 40 people from across the stormwater industry came together at a half-day seminar at Sydney Water’s offices in Parramatta to discuss the state of stormwater funding in NSW.

Participants heard from six speakers from consulting, government and an industry association on a variety of topics around stormwater funding. These included regulatory drivers for stormwater, the economic tools for funding stormwater, Sydney Water’s recent price proposal, the link to asset planning, and the state governments new model for catchment management.

Participants debated the merits of developing a business case for improved stormwater funding for submission to the NSW Government. As expected, there was a diversity of views regarding funding shortfalls, the preparedness of the stormwater industry to ask for changes, what changes we should be prioritising, and how best to further engage with industry members and the NSW Government.

Feedback from the seminar was positive, however, everyone acknowledged the additional work needed to develop any business case for sustainable stormwater funding. Stormwater NSW will now carefully consider the seminar outcomes and consult again with its members to plot a path forward in 2025.