Changes ‘lipstick on a pig’
A Ruapehu district councillor says efforts will continue to put in place a plan for Three Waters reforms that protect property rights and community voice.
Councillor Adie Doyle represents the Ruapehu District Council on Communities 4 Local Democracy (C4LD), a breakaway collective of 32 local councils that continues to challenge the Government’s controversial reform model.
C4LD has put forward its own proposal for reform while the local government association of councils, Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), works with the Government to support its Three Waters Reform Programme.
Doyle said the Government’s changes to the reform package, following recommendations from a working group, merely paid lip service to addressing widespread concerns.
‘‘The recommendations from the working group, although they are an improvement, they’re just minor improvements on a bad idea – so it’s lipstick on a pig.’’
Water infrastructure, such as pipes, reservoirs and treatment plants, is owned by 67 councils that deliver storm, waste and drinking water services to their ratepayers.
The Government said on Friday each council would now have shares in the four massive entities that would take over water networks and service delivery. This would confirm an ownership stake for councils, ministers said.
Doyle condemned the new public shareholding model as Government spin.
‘‘It’s an absolute nonsense. They’re called non-financial shares. With property and ownership comes rights, and those rights are being extinguished,’’ he said.
‘‘To say that the council still has ownership is Government spin because at the moment we have 100% control over those assets and the people have a direct line of sight to those assets. We’re going to lose that.
‘‘The RDC is a legal entity in its own right and we own those water assets on behalf of our ratepayers.
‘‘The Government is expropriating those property rights.
‘‘They’re taking away those property rights without full and fair compensation.
‘‘That links into the co-governance model in that you’re taking away assets from one group of people and giving it to another group of people to manage on their behalf, without the mandate from the people.’’
The Government proposal embeds 50-50 co-governance for mana whenua and local councils in the Regional Representation Groups that will oversee the four new water entities, including appointing board members.
Doyle said ownership and cogovernance were burning issues raised by Ruapehu councillors, but protecting local voice was the biggest concern.
Along with the Whanganui, south Taranaki and Rangitīkei districts, the Ruapehu district falls into the proposed Entity B.
‘‘This new area Entity B is going to have a population of over one million people and there are going to be either six or seven council reps on the governance board. In an organisation of a million people, little old Ruapehu with 12,000 population – our voice will not be heard,’’ Doyle said.
Doyle said nobody disagreed that water networks needed improvement – the question was how that would be funded.
He said through the water services bill the Government had lifted water standards to a level councils could not afford, and local authorities would need grants or subsidies to upgrade those services.
C4LD preferred a model in which the Government provided a regulatory envelope to fund council-controlled water organisations, Doyle said.
C4LD chairperson and Manawatū District mayor Helen Worboys said the C4LD model showed how balance sheet separation and the efficiencies of collaboration could be delivered while protecting local voice and community property rights.
‘‘You’re taking away assets from one group of people and giving it to another group of people to manage on their behalf, without the mandate from the people.’’ Adie Doyle Ruapehu district councillor
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.