7 Consumers are driving change Vol 19 No 42, November 1, 2021
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Councils split on Three Waters Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz
R
URAL mayors are hopeful changes promised by the Government after it mandated its Three Waters policy this week will give communities a greater governance over water assets. Ruapehu Mayor Don Cameron says there was a noticeable shift in mood at a virtual meeting of mayors after Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced that she was mandating the controversial policy. Cameron says councils still need to address the unaffordable costs of upgrading drinking, storm and wastewater systems, a view endorsed by mayors at last week’s meeting. He was heartened to hear metropolitan mayors are less concerned about subsidising smaller rural councils than ensuring local communities have a voice in the entities governing Three Waters. “The conversation has gone from fighting this to now working to get a solution and ensuring the governance of the new entities reflects democratic decisionmaking,” Cameron said. The Government’s Three Waters reforms will create four publiclyowned water entities, which Cameron says are businesses rather than public bodies. It is crucial these do not replicate the electricity industry, of which he says there are too many companies and the costs are too great. Mahuta plans to establish a working group of local
government, iwi and water industry experts to work through elements of the final entity design. The minister reiterated the case for change is compelling, saying 43 of the 67 councils do not have revenue to cover their water services operating expenditures, let alone once the infrastructure starts failing. Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan welcomed the realisation by Government officials that rural water schemes differ from urban. Clutha has NZ’s third-largest rural water reticulation system and he has highlighted to officials the implications of the policy on those schemes. Cadogan says a viable solution is still needed, with his council alone having to upgrade 11 of its 12 sewage treatment plants to meet new environmental regulations. A third of council business and a third of staff are involved in water, and Cadogan says continued uncertainty will make retention of those workers more difficult and potentially create stranded council assets. Waimate District Council Mayor Craig Rowley is disappointed by the decision to mandate the policy. “It’s appalling when the community feedback to the Government from a large majority of councils has stated they have serious issues with the model they are promoting and they appear to have just ignored that,” Rowley said. Rowley is also concerned that data the Government requested from councils appears to have been manipulated to justify the policy. Confusion that has prevailed throughout the process continues with Rowley saying officials do
IMPACT: Waimate District Council Mayor Craig Rowley says officials do not appear to understand the full implications of the Three Waters policy.
The conversation has gone from fighting this to now working to get a solution and ensuring the governance of the new entities reflects democratic decision-making. Don Cameron Ruapehu Mayor not appear to understand the full implications of the policy. Mahuta and officials visited Waimate recently and he says they had no idea 85% of the
region’s freshwater was drunk by livestock. It is unclear if rural water schemes will face a uniform charge or what will happen to waste and stormwater. He is pleased the new water regulator, Taumata Arowai, is taking a risk-based approach to rural water, although Rowley is uncertain what that means in practice to the administration of rural water schemes. Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is disappointed the Government has mandated the reforms, but its president Stuart Crosby says systemic issues still need to be addressed. National’s local government spokesperson Christopher Luxon says the decision is tantamount
to state-sanctioned theft of assets paid for and owned by ratepayers. He says the announcement shows that earlier comments by Mahuta about working in partnership were hollow and her reassurances that councils could continue to opt-out were completely false. Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard has major concerns with governance and accountability. “The complexity of rural water scheme ownership and operations has got rural people worried,” Hoggard said. “How will the new entities ensure the needs of smaller and rural communities are not crowded out when setting investment priorities and plans?”