“The Minister for Local Government Nanaia Mahuta is unable to justify why it is necessary for mana whenua to get more of a say than other parts of the community when it comes to the four new water entities,” says ACT’s Local Government spokesperson Simon Court.
“The Minister for Local Government Nanaia Mahuta is unable to justify why it is necessary for mana whenua to get more of a say than other parts of the community when it comes to the four new water entities,” says ACT’s Local Government spokesperson Simon Court.
“I asked the Minister why clause 141 of the Water Services Entities Bill allows iwi and hapu to submit ‘te mana o te wai’ statements that must be considered in any decision making by the four water services entities, but other communities who have an interest in freshwater are unable to have the same input.
“The Minister said that ‘te mana o te wai’ statements can benefit other communities such as farmers, but she failed to explain why only mana whenua are allowed a say and other communities directly affected are unable to do so.
“This is another case of Labour shoehorning divisive co-government into legislation it has no business being in. People shouldn’t have an extra say just because of who their grandparents are.
“There is no rationale for continuing to have co-government at the centre of water reforms. Nanaia Mahuta herself has admitted that “Māori have not expressed rights and interests in three waters assets over and above those as ratepayers within their respective communities of interest.”
”Whatever rationale there was for putting a co-governance model front and centre of the water reforms has been flushed down the drain and she should drop her pretence that co-government needs to be part of a reform programme.
“There are real problems with drinking water quality in some communities, failing wastewater networks and sewage overflows into rivers and onto beaches. None of these problems are solved by trying to force co-government structures on to a future three waters delivery model.
“The focus must be on ensuring New Zealanders have access to safe drinking water and high-quality infrastructure for storm and wastewater.
ACT’s Water Infrastructure Plan would:
- Provide for councils to enter voluntary “shared services” agreements, gaining the benefits of scale, while retaining local ownership and control
- Establish long term 30-year Central Government-Local Government Partnership agreements to plan water infrastructure upgrades tailored to specific regions
- Establish a Public-Private Partnerships to attract investment from financial entities such as KiwiSaver funds, ACC, iwi investment funds, etc.
- Expand the exemption from domestic supply for a single dwelling to also include all small water suppliers sup plying fewer than 30 endpoint users.
“We can improve the current system, but we don’t need to do so through state-mandated centralisation and allowing some people to have more influence than others based on their ethnicity.
“ACT’s plan will better balance community control of water assets alongside a plan for levelling up the necessary infrastructure to ensure safety and efficient water allocation.”