Three Waters ‘major issue’
Luxon expects Government’s water plan to be key focus of local body elections
The Government’s controversial Three Waters Reform programme will be a major issue in local government elections, says National Party leader Christopher Luxon.
During a visit to Nelson yesterday, Luxon said the Government had not listened to ‘‘local democracy, local government and local voice’’ on its plan to shift management of the country’s drinking water, wastewater and storm water assets from councils to four proposed water entities.
‘‘People across the country feel incredibly frustrated about it – quite understandably – because citizens and ratepayers have paid for these assets and they’re essentially being stolen and put into these four mega entities and that’s not right,’’ Luxon said.
His comments come the same week former National MP Dr Nick Smith – who is vying for the Nelson mayoralty – said the ‘‘loss of control’’ of the city’s water assets under the reform programme was the most important policy issue for the council election.
Luxon said there were some ‘‘challenges’’ with water management, and National supported the establishment of new Crown regulator Taumata Arowai to oversee the drinking water sector nationally, which was a pillar of the reform programme.
However, National believed the assets should stay in local control and had long been promising to repeal that aspect of the reform, if elected. Luxon said he did not think that unravelling it would be difficult.
‘‘The great thing about this Government is it takes a long time to do anything so it might be easy,’’ he said.
‘‘We are going to repeal and unwind it because it’s not the right model.’’
If there was an issue in a region ‘‘a local community is best to respond’’, with councils looking at the best way to manage the assets their patch.
‘‘It’s not a one-size-fits-all problem.’’
Councils had come back with their own ideas for managing those assets such as outsourcing, collaborating with neighbouring councils or using council controlled organisations.
‘‘They all had their ideas and they all put a lot of thought and a lot of effort into it, and they submitted it to a minister who’d . . . already made a predetermined decision before they put the submissions in, and I just thought that was really disingenuous and a total sham,’’ Luxon said.
During a 30-year career in central government politics, Smith held the Nelson seat for 24 years until 2020 when it was won by Rachel Boyack, from Labour.
Luxon said while Smith was ‘‘a hard act to follow’’, National would find someone ‘‘as good’’ who could advocate strongly for Nelson to contest the general election in 2023.
If National got into government, it would have a ‘‘major repair job to do’’ because the Labour Government was ‘‘all spin, no delivery’’.
On top of problems in education, health, housing and some rising crime statistics, ‘‘one in four Kiwis are really struggling each month to make ends meet . . . inflation is at an all-time high for over 30-something years’’.
Candidate nominations for the local government elections close on August 12, with postal voting scheduled from September 16. Election day is October 8.
‘‘People across the country feel incredibly frustrated about it.’’ Christopher Luxon