Govt challenged on cleanup bill

The Government needs to show how it will pay to clean up New Zealand’s rivers if it will not charge commercial water users, the Labour Party says.

Labour’s proposal for a tax of about 2c per 1000 litres has been described as “reckless” by National because it could force Treaty of Waitangi settlements to be renegotiated.

The Government said a royalty asserted ownership, and would inevitably force a counter-assertion that Maori owned the water.

Labour’s environment spokesman, David Parker, said yesterday that this was “scaremongering” which distracted from the issue of paying for waterway restoration.

“They are trying to avoid the essential point underneath all of this. And that is: if users and polluters don’t pay, who does? The answer is pensioners and other taxpayers. The Treaty point is subsidiary to that.”

Environment Minister Nick Smith said last week that the cost of cleaning up New Zealand’s rivers would be $2 billion over the next 23 years.

Those costs would fall on farmers, who had to fence off waterways, councils, which would have to upgrade wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and taxpayers.

The Government announced an initial $44 million towards freshwater improvement projects, as part of a new $100m Freshwater Improvement Fund.

“The cost will be $100m a year, so they’ve got a shortfall,” Parker said. “And it’s not coming from polluters.”

Labour says it will use the revenue generated by royalties to clean up rivers, streams and lakes in partnership with councils.

Prime Minister Bill English denied yesterday that he was putting water pricing “in the too-hard-basket”.

The Government was “proud” of its progress on water quality standards, English said, and the difficult issue of water allocation and iwi needed to be dealt with “carefully and respectfully”.