Tourists to south-east Queensland could pay an extra $1 to $2 per night on their hotel room bill and raise $7million towards the $30 million a year extra needed to keep the Brisbane River clean.
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Fairfax Media recently reported a "significantly cleaner" Brisbane River, with white sand revealed under the Story Bridge.
However the river is still threatened by hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sediment flowing downstream from farms in the Lockyer Valley as summer storms wash water downstream.
Now Fairfax Media can reveal new waterways funding models – like a tourist-bed levy to pay to reduce silt in the Brisbane River will be debated by the Council of Mayors next month when deputy Premier Jackie Trad returns from "City Deal" infrastructure funding talks in London.
Well-placed sources say the new funding options to clean the river will include waterway infrastructure funds as part of the "City Deal" talks.
A new funding paper – for the three levels of government – is being prepared over the next three weeks.
"We are aiming for these catchment works to be in these City Deals," the source said.
"That is a paper we are preparing with the (state) government and the Property Council.
"So you've got two tiers of government, plus the industry involved in designing a system that everyone can support.
"It is the real game changer in the way we fund infrastructure."
The federal government will then be targeted for more specific grants to projects chosen by the Resilient Rivers Taskforce, backed by Healthy Waterways
The river problem - silt and the Bay
Brisbane has a long-term problem with sediment being washed off farming lands in the Lockyer Valley, blocking the Mt Crosby Water Treatment Plant and out into Moreton Bay.
The city's clean drinking water was hours away from being shut down in January 2013.
At its most basic it also means the Port of Brisbane can be blocked by silt. Petrol tankers were blocked outside the Brisbane Port for five days in 2014.
Recently Griffith University's, Australian Rivers Institute published a paper (March 2016) which found corals and seagrass beds in the shallow Moreton Bay were still in danger from sediment flowing downstream.
"Any further reductions in water clarity would pose a significant threat to seagrass and coral reef communities that are already under stress in western Moreton Bay," the March 2016 research paper found.
The new river solution – raising $30 million a year to stop soil off farms
The "tourist-bed levy" step alone could raise between $6 million and $12 million for river revegetation programs to halt soils washing from farms.
The Marsden Jacobs review (July 2016) finds: "A visitor levy could be added to accommodation charges. Even a small levy of $1 per visitor night could raise in the order of $6.9 million per annum, based on current visitor numbers," the report finds.
"We do not expect that a levy of this magnitude would have a negative impact on tourism visitor numbers or total expenditure in SEQ," a new Brisbane River funding strategy by consultants Marsden Jacobs for the Council of Mayors finds.
The "tourist bed levy" is part of four options being developed by the Council of Mayors, the Queensland Government and the re-invigorated Resilient Rivers Team to find better ways to clean the Brisbane River Catchment.
What is being considered
- Better prioritising existing state and federal waterway grants – between $15m to $20m per year;
- Using funds identified in new "City Deal" infrastructure funding model talks underway by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad in her current trip to London;
- A south-east Queensland-wide "waterway levy" of $10 a year on 1.15 million households in SEQ could $11m to $12m;
- A "betterment" levy on properties with property value increases after policies reduced their flood risk could raise around $8million; and
- Re-prioritisation of SEQ Water's $25million a year catchment projects
The current scenario
The previous Queensland Government launched the Resilient Rivers Strategy in December 2014 – strongly backed by Brisbane's lord mayor Graham Quirk – but there was conflict about funding. The new Resilient Rivers Funding Models Options Analysis was completed in May 2016. A decision will be made next month.
What Brisbane's lord mayor says
Catchment management plans identifying specific revegation projects are ready for the Mid- Brisbane, Lockyer and Pumicestone catchments of the Brisbane River, while Logan/Albert catchment is "well advanced", lord mayor Graham Quirk said.
"The next phase of planning will address the Bremer and Lower Brisbane/Redlands catchments."
"A recent funding options paper, commissioned by the Council of Mayors (SEQ), looked at a number of potential mechanisms that could deliver a sustainable and long term solution for financing the works of the Resilient Rivers Initiative," Cr Quirk said.
"The Council of Mayors have not examined these funding options at this time."
On Friday afternoon a spokesperson for Mark Bailey, Queensland's acting Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning minister said their department had not worked on the tourism bed levy proposal as part of Minister Jackie Trad City Deal talks.
"The tourist-bed levy has not been involved in the work our government has been doing on the SEQ City Deal," a spokeswoman said.
"The Palaszczuk Government remains committed to no new taxes or charges at a state level."
The spokesperson said councils could implement levies without state government approval.
Decisions will be made in October.
