10-point proposal spells out C4LD plan or compromise

C4LD’s 10-point proposal for compromise — supported by all members — reads: 1. Foundation principle - community property rights in Three Waters assets are to be both respected and meaningful.

2. The Government should agree to amend its current reform process and allow time for the revised approach to be reflected in draft legislation.

3. With respect to investment decision-making, asset owners should actively seek to initiate authentic discussions with mana whenua at a local level that consider co-design and partnership arrangements that acknowledge and enable Te Tiriti based pathways at a local and regional level.

4. In return, asset owners agree to commit to meeting health and environmental standards, once known, within an appropriate time frame. 5. The regulatory framework should specify a “backstop” provision that identifies a set of circumstances which would justify future Crown intervention if an asset owner was not making acceptable progress towards meeting those regulatory requirements.

6. Progress should be reported on annually by asset owners and be benchmarked across the sector. 7. To further incentivise sector progress, a formal process might be established that requires an asset owner to prepare a plan that would map out the steps it proposes to take to meet the required standards in a financially viable and sustainable manner.

8. A process to finance and allocate funds to areas that will require financial assistance be designed that is national in application and independently administered accordingly to objective and transparent criteria (this is consistent with the recommendation of the Productivity Commission in November 2019).

9. This subsidy scheme will be designed to meet investment shortfalls until such time as sufficient progress has been made. At which point the scheme will cease and asset owners will finance matters on a business-as-usual approach.

10. A sector-wide sector best-practice improvement process be created and membership made compulsory. (In a similar manner used to implement successfully the One Network Road Classification Framework and now One Network Framework in the road infrastructure area, and governed by Waka Kotahi and the Local Government Sector).

The full presentation to the minister outlining C4LD’s framework for reform is now available at www.communities4localdemocracy.co.nz/ ideas.