No tears from ‘poster child’

Cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta says she was happy to step aside from the local government portfolio after becoming the ‘‘poster child’’ for negativity over Three Waters reforms.

‘‘I recognised, especially in the last two years with the amount of vitriol I had been receiving – which became about me and not about the issue – that it was a hot stone of discontent for small parts of the community,’’ Mahuta said, in an interview yesterday.

Mahuta, the foreign affairs minister, was effectively demoted in Cabinet on Tuesday by the new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, in a reshuffle of his ministers. Mahuta had been the local government minister since 2017, and in recent years pushed through an array of reform – the most controversial the Three Waters legislation.

The Three Waters reforms, which will take the management of drinking, waste, and storm water systems from councils and create four regional water entities, has become a lightning rod for anti-Government sentiment and concern over ‘‘co-governance’’ relationships between the Crown and Māori.

Mahuta herself had become the focal point of this criticism, and of conspiracy about the reforms. She also appeared to be a driving force behind a clause in a Three Waters bill that legal experts decried as constitutionally ‘‘dangerous’’, and Labour hastily legislated its way out of amid controversy in December.

In a widely expected move, Hipkins on Tuesday removed Mahuta from the local government portfolio and handed it to Kieran McAnulty. Mahuta was also dropped from the Cabinet front bench.

‘‘I reflected to the prime minister: ‘It’s a privilege to serve in our government, and I’m happy to do the things where I can make the most difference’,’’ she said, of her conversation with Hipkins.

‘‘That means, if I become the poster child for a negative reaction to Three Waters, I’m happy to ensure that it progresses; to step aside.’’

Asked about her experience, and recent discussion of the abuse faced by former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Mahuta said misogyny could not be tolerated ‘‘from any quarter’’.

‘‘You’ve got to put it into context to some extent. These are nameless, faceless, keyboard warriors, who won’t front that level of aggression, that they’re happy to front on social media platforms,’’ she said.

‘‘And then I think having a very clear-eyed view of the important role that media plays, to ensure that we have balanced reporting of issues based on the substance of the issue, rather than the politic, would put New Zealand in good stead.’’

She said she was sad to leave the local government portfolio, but was proud of her work in the past five years. She had also been local government minister for three years in Helen Clark’s Government.

Mahuta said her successes included legislating to require councils to be responsible for wellbeing as ‘‘we needed councils to think more broadly than road, rates, and rubbish’’, removing impediments for Māori land use, expanding democratic representation through Māori wards, and focussing on building resilience.

Hipkins has promised a ‘‘reset’’ of the Three Waters reforms, but has so far been unwilling to detail what this means.

Mahuta said the reforms were ‘‘a pathway, in my view, we need to continue to walk down’’.

‘‘If we look around the world, and the nature of how investment occurs in infrastructure, we are way behind the eight-ball,’’ she said.

‘‘So while there are, yes, challenging local body politics around this, in time people will see that local voice is absolutely key to decision-making, and that we need to ensure that we have a financially sustainable way of investing in infrastructure.

‘‘Otherwise, we’re going to not only have the problems like what we’ve seen in Auckland, but we’ll continue to go down a route of thinking that we can have growth without really strong infrastructure investment that underpins real liveable cities.’’

Now freed of the local government portfolio, Mahuta will leave for India on Sunday in her first overseas trip of the year.