‘The fight is still on’
Battle against Three Waters reform continues: Mayor
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe says he wants to find any way he can to oppose the Three Waters reform in its current form, and told councillors “the fight is still on”.
Most councillors backed measures to oppose a raft of Government reforms — Three Waters, the Resource Management Act, and the Future for Local Government Report — at its final meeting of the year on Tuesday.
Tripe will write to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Local Government and the Minister for the Environment, stating the council’s opposition to the current reform proposals.
Tripe said he was keen to make sure the council was pushing back as best it could. That included potentially joining Communities For Local Democracy (C4LD) — a local government action group formed to create an alternative to Three Waters — which would require a one-off payment of $15,000.
The previous council voted 9-3 against joining. Council once again voted against joining C4LD at this week’s meeting, this time by 7-6.
“There has also been a mayoral declaration which is fresh off the press, based on conversations various mayors have had around the country to continue to push against the Government reform,” Tripe said.
“It seems to have superseded C4LD, but they are both on the table.”
Tripe said he intended on signing the declaration, which advocates for a regionalised delivery model.
The council will also make a submission to the Future of Local Government Panel requesting they propose a new structure and state a preference for this being constructed around communities of common interest such as Te Awa Tupua.
It supported the case for changes, but not in their current forms.
“We have a concern about the reform agenda that’s being driven by the current Government, specifically that each of the individual reforms is being progressed in silos,” council chief executive David Langford said.
He said there was no focus on integrating each of the reforms into a new system for local government to operate in.
“Overall, the resource reforms do offer solutions to some of the issues we’re experiencing at the moment with the timeliness and cost of processing resource consents and getting district plans made — however, one of the key features is the formation of a regional planning committee.
“As a council, we are likely to have a single seat at the table amongst our peers in the Horizons region.
“We think this is a significant undermining of local democracy.”
The Future for Local Government Report was not strong enough and was a missed opportunity to take a stronger position on structural reform, Langford said.
“It could be years or decades before that is even picked up if we don’t encourage them to take firmer action now.”
Deputy Mayor Helen Craig said the potential removal of control of the council’s district plan was a bigger issue than Three Waters.
“It just defies logic how they [Government] think they can put it out to a separate committee that has control over what we look like.
“Why doesn’t the Government just take away roading as well? Then, why
the hell do we [the council] exist?”
Councillor Michael Law said he opposed the proposed Three Waters reforms and the need for any change from a Whanganui perspective, an opinion backed by councillor Rob Vinsen.
Councillor Josh ChandulalMackay said while there were technical aspects to address, he was absolutely convinced of a case for change at a local and national level.
“We know that under the current system of funding for local government, the amount of investment required for aspects of our Three Waters network is unaffordable under the current system.”
The mayor said while the format was still to be decided, the intention was to engage the community on the reforms through public forums.
“As early on in the new year as possible, we’ll be looking to have public community engagement to get their views, but also to help educate the public as well.”
Central government has asked councils and the public to provide feedback on the legislation before the end of January.
Langford said he was critical of the lack of genuine engagement with local councils and the timing of central government’s consultation on the legislation.
“The window for making submissions cuts across the postelection period when new councillors are only just getting up to speed — as well as the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the resource management system, and we are being rushed to provide our input instead of being properly listened to by central government”.
Tripe told the Chronicle that central government seemed intent on pushing through the reforms at pace.
“That has always been the issue, and despite pushback from me and others, we are just not able to dictate what happens.
“I will sign the mayoral declaration very soon, which will continue to look at ways of acknowledging reform, but not the model the Government are providing to us.
“The fight is still on.”