Some more serious breaches are as follows.

• 25 environmental breaches such as damage to vegetation , incorrect disposal of hydrocarbon wastes, sewage overflow, oil and chemical spills.
  
• Operating Bell Bay Three gas turbines without a permit. Initial advice that a permit was not required was incorrect. Hydro Tasmania subsequently submitted a development application and gained a permit.
  
• Cooling water that did not meet the water quality requirements of the Environmental Protection Notice was released from Bell Bay Power Station.
  
• AFS Licence liquid funds breach reported to ASIC and satisfactorily resolved.
  
• Internal trading and finance procedural breaches.
  
• Internal confidentiality breached – sensitive documents leaked to the media.
  
• National Electricity Rules breach due to faulty protection systems at two power stations.
  

Response in relation to all breaches involves two main processes – immediate action to correct the breach, then analysis of the underlying causes of the breach and actions that will decrease the likelihood of a repeat. Resolution can include changing or implementing new processes, training, asset enhancement or replacement, and improvements to systems. A formal Breach Response Plan was developed during 2006/07.

Ethics

The ethical practices of honesty, respect and integrity are core components of Hydro Tasmania’s values, and efforts to ensure understanding and application of these and other elements of our values continued in 2006/07.

Our values program is now implemented across the whole organisation and, as before, was well received by those who took part this year. Employees’ understanding of the values is stable as evident from the 2007 Staff Feedback Survey where this indicator scored 68.4 per cent, following 68 per cent for 2006.

The CEO’s values awards are presented to people nominated by their peers. During the year, eight awards were made to staff nominated by their colleagues for the exceptional application of values in their decision-making and work practices.