Everyone agrees to ‘change’ Three Waters
Significant changes await the Government’s Three Waters reforms, after politicians sorted through more than 80,000 submissions about the bill. But the Opposition says these changes won’t go far enough.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has ‘‘welcomed’’ a series of proposed amendments from Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee, about her Water Services Entities Bill.
Although every party agreed the bill needed changes, they were unable to reach consensus about what those changes should be. The Labour majority, Green, ACT and National parties all filed differing recommendations.
The majority did not make any recommendations about ‘‘cogovernance’’. As it stands, the bill would establish representative boards encompassing council appointees and iwi appointees. Many iwi, through Treaty settlements, already have responsibilities to collaborate with councils to improve freshwater quality.
These representative groups would not be responsible for the day-to-day operation of water infrastructure. Instead, they would appoint board members to the water management bodies – who should be appointed based on expertise.
The select committee, backed by
its Labour member majority, said the bill should require that each water entity hold annual shareholder meetings with councils, introduce greater audit scrutiny, and require a mix of regional and urban representatives of the regional representative groups.
The bill aimed to bring the country’s water infrastructure together, creating new water management entities to take responsibility for providing storm water, drinking water, and waste water services to the country.
‘‘We are committed to ensuring everyone’s drinking water is clean, boil water notices are minimised, sewage leaks get fixed, and pipes are in the ground to help build new homes, in the most cost-effective way possible,’’ Mahuta said, in a statement yesterday.
She and Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern had been preparing for the lofty select committee recommendations to land this week, indicating earlier that they were open to making significant changes to the bill.
National and ACT promptly criticised Labour’s recommendations.
National local government spokesperson Simon Watts said the select committee should have held off making its recommendations to consider the alternative proposal of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown and Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon.
‘‘The Government is intent on ploughing ahead with their highlycentralised, co-governed megaentities,’’ he said.
ACT local government spokesperson Simon Court said Government MPs were ‘‘continuing to bulldoze’’ through with Three Waters, raising particular concern with the continuation of ‘‘co-governance’’ arrangements in the bill.
Court said water reform should be opt-in for councils, giving them an option to enter ‘‘shared service’’ agreements.
The Green Party also had concerns.
While it supported change, it said councils should maintain ‘‘real ownership of water assets and infrastructure’’.
Now that the select committee’s report on the Water Services Entities Bill has been filed, Parliament would be able to debate the various recommendations.
Mahuta said she supported the proposal to require shareholder meetings and ensure a rural-urban mix on the representation boards. She said she wanted to see more accountability measures in the legislation. Government ministers have said this legislation would proceed before the next election.