Editorial

The furious debate on bottled-water exports is based on two heartfelt beliefs. One, that free access to clean water is every New Zealander’s right. The other, that national assets should not be given away. So, are these simple convictions really, as the Government insists, so terribly hard to reconcile with our law in the case of bottled-water exports? Almost certainly not, if approached with tact, practicality and a sense of perspective. It is not necessary, as Environment Minister Nick Smith has asserted, to charge absolutely everybody else who uses water in their business if we put an impost on bottled-water exporters.

As with the two founding heartland beliefs that have made this an issue, it comes down to what most people will accept as fair. There has never been a groundswell of concern about breweries, farms, adventure tourism companies or factories using water resources for free.

Yes, there are resource-depletion concerns around some usage, notably irrigation. And those whose activities pollute water are no longer tolerated. But few New Zealanders would begrudge free water use in most existing commercial activities, if only because in the great scheme of things, they benefit us all. Our wonderful water resource gives us the edge over other nations and is the very basis of our economy, with water keeping our biggest industries afloat. Agriculture, horticulture, tourism, wine and the like benefit the economy, employing thousands.

In those respects, bottled-water exports are no different. But there are two special considerations here. This is not just any old water that one might use to cool machinery or hydrate stock.

It’s pristine bore water – so pure it doesn’t need to be treated, but can simply be bottled and sold for a premium price. It’s a natural resource turned into a product.

However tiny the percentages – so far just 8.7 million litres of the 10 trillion litres of fresh water extracted here every year

– if anyone’s making a buck out of it, surely it should be New Zealanders. Yet repeatedly, the local authorities in charge of managing our water resources are allocating this pure water to – admittedly canny – entrepreneurs for token or sometimes nil charges.

As the Opposition parties point out, surely it is not beyond the wit of regulators to require local bodies to charge a reasonable royalty so New Zealand gets a return. We can debate whether the royalty money should be tied to clean-water initiatives, shared with local iwi or returned to the local or national coffers. But there’s an established principle here: we don’t let any other raw material or natural resource go for naught. To mandate charging for water exports would be to fix a loophole, not create an automatic template or precedent set to warp the entire commercial use of water.

However, the Government is tiptoeing around a sleeping taniwha. Maori wish to assert ownership rights over water, among other resources, and there are justified political fears that any move to charge fees for exported water would trigger a full-on legal bunfight.

Indeed it might. But isn’t this looking at the issue the wrong way? Maori are as incensed as anyone else that a handful of businesses, including foreign-owned entities, are making millions of dollars out of a treasured New Zealand resource, which they’re getting for next to nothing. Rancorous legal action will be more likely to escalate if the Government doesn’t start to rationalise this situation.

And is it fair to see Maoridom as some reactively grasping entity that has “where’s our cut?” as a first response to every situation? Surely there’s far more evidence of iwi working creatively and constructively with the Crown to protect waterways. This month’s legislation literally personifying the Whanganui River, in order to enshrine its legal rights, is just the latest example of creative Maori-Crown collaboration that works for the benefit of us all.

Prime Minister Bill English is right that our whole watermanagement approach needs careful thought and planning and cannot be rushed – especially because New Zealanders bridle at the idea of water ownership. But he’s also aware Kiwis value fairness above all. And if there was ever an example of where we should go with the flow on that, it’s over bottled-water exports.

There’s an established principle here: we don’t let any other raw material or natural resource go for naught.