Three Waters

2022 - 4 - 30

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Spinoff"

Lifesaver or 'asset grab'? The Three Waters programme, explained (The Spinoff)

The ideas behind Three Waters have been bubbling away for nearly two decades, according to local government minister Nanaia Mahuta. In theory it's simple enough ...

In exchange for providing 93% of the assets for the new northern water utility, Auckland council will get four of 14 seats on its local regional group. The shares won’t have financially value, but will give councils ownership of the utilities. Each of the four new utilities will have one of these groups. The utility itself will then provide day-to-day Three Waters services. As Mahuta sees it, the case for Three Waters was made by the 2016 contamination of Havelock North’s water supply. Following months of near revolt by local leaders, the government is moving forward with an amended plan for its contentious Three Waters programme.

3 Waters changes welcome (Otago Daily Times)

Southern mayors say the Government's changes to its planned Three Waters reforms show councils can gain traction without joining splinter groups.

The ministers’ announcement yesterday was a "stunning endorsement" of the working group recommendations, Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan said. "And privatisation is one of the big fears that I have and that a lot of people have." However, he said the Government endorsement of 45 of the 47 recommendations the working group made was a good result. "At a personal level, it was an awful lot of work that went into breaking down the original Government plan and rebuilding something better," Mr Cadogan said. Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan, who was the southern representative on the working group, said he continued to have concerns about the reforms as proposed. Mr Robertson and Ms Mahuta jointly announced the Government was adopting almost all the recommendations from a working group established in November as concerns mounted about the reforms.

Kaipara mayor sounds Three Waters warning (New Zealand Herald)

Northland's Three Waters governance voice will be lost in the wake of Government decisions on how the sector will be helmed, Kaipara Mayor Dr Jason Smith is ...

The group has more than $60 billion in Three Waters assets and represents more than a million people nationwide. Smith will be the only current Entity A Mayor still in place by October, if re-elected at the upcoming local government elections. Smith made the call as the working group's only Northland local government representative. The Government wants to take the Three Waters functions from 67 councils nationally and combine them into four giant inter-regional water services entities. This would see Entity A's 40 shares being split between Auckland Council getting 35 shares, WDC and FNDC two each and KDC one. WDC is one of three New Zealand councils which have formally challenged the Government in the High Court over what ownership in the Three Waters arena means.

Three Waters tweaks won't fix broken agenda (New Zealand National Party)

Labour needs to accept that their Three Waters agenda is well past saving and the tweaks they've made today do nothing to address the key concerns communities have about the reforms, National's Local Government Spokesperson Simon Watts says.

“According to the Government, local councils will still be the ‘owners’ of their assets – but they won’t actually have any control over them. “National will not support reforms that will strip councils and ratepayers of control over their assets and will repeal Labour’s four entity model.” “Local councils and communities will still lose control of their assets, and the unproductive and divisive co-governance structure remains.

Opposition remains despite changes (Gisborne Herald)

The Government has tweaked its Three Waters reform programme, largely following the recommendations of the working group of councils and mana whenua it ...