“The insider-led working group set up by Local Government Minister Mahuta in response to community concerns about her agenda will please the Minister, but it has failed to address the real problems,” says ACT’s Local Government spokesperson Simon Court....
“The insider-led working group set up by Local Government Minister Mahuta in response to community concerns about her agenda will please the Minister, but it has failed to address the real problems,” says ACT’s Local Government spokesperson Simon Court.
“Instead of practical solutions to level up infrastructure across New Zealand the working group has simply doubled down on three waters reform as a Treaty settlement in disguise.
“It is now recommending an even more complex and overblown governance system involving multiple committees and dozens of representatives from councils, matched by the same number from iwi.
“Decisions on three waters infrastructure are to be made only by consensus. How will they ever make the necessary trade-offs between the costs, and the benefits of investment to people and the environment?
“Some of the questions that the working group could have addressed include:
- Will the proposed co-governance arrangements mean that more serviced land is available for housing, and if so, by when, and at what cost?
- Will taking Auckland’s three waters assets from council and placing the assets into a co-governance arrangement reduce sewage overflows into rivers and onto beaches, and if so, by when will the overflows be fixed?
- Will the proposed iwi co-governance arrangements make it easier or more difficult to get consents for new water infrastructure?
“Auckland Council presented a differing view in the working group report, because it believes its three waters model is already working better than any other to manage $11 billion worth of assets.
“What it really needs is access to more long term funding so they can deliver better infrastructure faster, and to where it’s needed
“There is a case for reform in the way three waters assets are managed and funded, but the Government’s reform agenda and the working group recommendations miss the mark.
“Instead of just taking assets – ACT has an alternative Water Infrastructure Plan. We have received detailed feedback from Mayors, many of whom support all or some aspects of the plan.”
ACT’s Water Infrastructure Plan would:
- Provide for councils to enter into voluntary “shared services” agreements, gaining the benefits of scale, while retaining local ownership and control;
- Establish 30-year central government-local government partnership agreements to plan water infrastructure upgrades tailored to specific regions;
- Establish public-private partnerships (through our proposed Nation-Building Agency) to attract investment from financial entities such as KiwiSaver funds, ACC and iwi investment funds;
- Expand the exemption from domestic supply for a single dwelling to also include all small water suppliers supplying fewer than 30 endpoint users.
“We can improve the current system, but setting up new committees and imposing co-governance arrangements will do nothing to level up three waters infrastructure.
“ACT’s plan will better balance community control of water assets alongside a plan for levelling up the necessary infrastructure to grow healthy communities and a healthy economy.”