Water war moves to Parliament
THE thunderous downpours across Auckland this weekend won’t be enough to replenish the city’s precarious water reserves, but some manoeuvrings between old political foes in Wellington just might.
National and NZ First both say their parties want to see an amendment to a new bill aimed at fast-tracking Resource Management Act (RMA) processes which would allow Auckland Council and Watercare to take hundreds of millions of litres of water per day from the Waikato River.
Amid the worst drought in a generation, Auckland Council wants to more than double the amount of water it can take from the Waikato, and this week tried to have the consent fast-tracked through Parliament.
The application, which has been stalled for seven years awaiting a consent hearing, is opposed by Waikato Regional Council. Waikato-Tainui are seeking a long-term solution with the council and Watercare, but oppose fast-tracking the legislation.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff sought to have the consent hearing added to the fasttracked bill. Deliberations in the select committee process are confidential, but it’s understood Goff’s attempt has not been successful.
National’s deputy leader and Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye said her party had advocated strongly for water consent to be added to the Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Bill.
‘‘It’s unacceptable that our largest city has waited seven years and is still over number one hundred in the queue to have this issue considered.‘‘
NZ First MP Shane Jones said the fast-tracked bill presented an ‘‘opportunity to get it done’’.
‘‘It’s nauseating that after seven years the RMA process has failed to deliver on water security for Auckland. At its deepest level this is not about Ma¯ ori rights, this is about the importance of access to water for a third of New Zealand’s population, which is a human right.
‘‘We simply cannot tolerate a situation where the businesses, the hospitals, the households, the marae of Auckland are denied secure access to water because of either a bureaucratic bunion or iwi standover politics.’’
Auckland’s water restrictions are likely to continue for up to a year.