Councils offer up Three Waters alternative
A national group of 27 councils opposing the Government’s three waters reforms have offered an alternative.
Communities 4 Local Democracy (C4LD), which includes the Waimakariri and Hurunui district councils, said in a press release, that ‘‘councils are better placed to deliver the Government’s Three Waters outcomes than mega-entity model, new research shows.’’
‘‘Analysis commissioned by Communities 4 Local Democracy He hapori mō te Manapori (C4LD) has concluded that both the council owned with stronger regulation, and a new Council Owned Enterprise (COE) model would perform better than the government’s proposal,’’ the release said.
A Department of Internal Affairs spokesperson said DIA is aware of the proposals and Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta met with representatives of the C4LD in December and asked them to present their proposals to the independent Working Group on Representation, Governance and Accountability of new Water Services Entities.
The spokesperson said the presentation took place on January 28 and the Working Group report is due on February 28.
C4LD claimed the analysis by global infrastructure advising firm Castalia showed their models of delivery achieve better outcomes on ‘‘accountability, IwiMaōri partnership, incentives of management and governance, access to financing, scale and scope efficiencies and flexibility for the future.’’
‘‘In comparison, the Government’s mega-entity proposal showed significantly worse outcomes across the board, on most of the criteria across the board on these outcomes.’’
C4LD chair and Manawatu district mayor Helen Worboys said, ‘‘Most of the infrastructure we’re talking about has a 100-year life and this is a once in a generation decision that will change things forever.’’
‘‘No-one needs a rushed decision forced through against the clear wishes of our communities.
‘‘We want to partner with the government to create real change that will last in the long term, and look forward to presenting our alternative approach to the Minister.’’
Worboys said there was still the opportunity for central government to work in partnership with local government to ‘‘create lasting change that delivers the outcome that everyone can support.’’
‘‘We are not against change, but we strongly oppose this forcing through of massive reforms that are based on questionable evidence and analysis,’’ she said.
‘‘Our membership – and we could safely say most of local government – agree that change is needed, but it needs to be change that doesn’t take away property rights and the community’s right to have a say.
‘‘The alternative approaches we’ve developed are based on models that we believe can achieve broad support, and that deliver a better outcome for our communities compared to the governments oversimplified ‘one size fits none’ model.
‘‘Ours is a framework for local government to work with its neighbours – with the support of central government – to transform three waters delivery for the better and in a way that all our communities can agree.
‘‘We’re the experts in local service delivery and we want to drive that change, not have unsuitable solutions forced upon communities based on unsound evidence and faulty analysis.’’
The DIA spokesperson said the Working Group’s recommendations, informed by its consideration of the C4LD proposals and proposals presented by other groups, will be carefully considered by the Government after the group’s report comes out on February 28.
‘‘The Department of Internal Affairs will not make public comment on the substance of Communities 4 Local Democracy’s proposals while the Working Group is considering these matters.’’
C4LD is a local government action group with 27 member councils throughout New Zealand.
The full reports detailing the proposals can be found at: www. communities4localdemocracy.co.nz/ideas