In June 2020, Government News reported that the New South Wales government had shelved the planned expansion of the Kurnell desalination plant in Sydney. In a letter dated 22 May, water minister Melinda Pavey withdrew the pricing review she had requested from the regulator IPART. In December 2019 she had still called for a swift expansion adding 250 megalitres of drinking water within a year. Philip Narezzi, chief executive of Sydney Desalination Plant, said high dam levels drove the pause. Site studies for an Illawarra plant at Port Kembla continued.
The report showed how closely desalination expansion plans tracked drought cycles: with dams refilled, the project lost urgency but remained an option in Sydney's water planning.
Source: Government News