Despite claims of a policy bonfire by Chris Hipkins, the Government is pushing ahead with its divisive race-based water policy. Auckland and Northland will be the first casualties, after new legislation was introduced to parliament this week.
Auckland and Northland will be the guinea pigs in a revised three waters model, becoming the first to form one of 10 water entities in July next year, with the remaining staggered out to mid-2026.
Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty confirmed the timeline today while introducing new legislation into the House for its first reading to cover recent changes to the water reforms, including expanding the initial four water service entities to 10.
The boundaries will be established roughly along the lines of New Zealand’s 16 regional councils. The 10 entities will be owned by councils via a shareholding and allow more direct engagement with the water entities that will manage water services on their behalf.
The expanded number of proposed entities came after strong opposition from some councils and organisations about losing local control over water assets, and after the Government consulted up and down the country.
McAnulty said it was a compromise in terms of ensuring there was a level of representation while still delivering economies of scale to ensure cost savings.
The new timeline confirms the Auckland and Northland entity will be in place by July next year. The remaining will be “staggered” out until July 2026.
NZ Herald
Don’t you love how the NZ Herald just shills the Government lines, especially over shareholding. The shareholding is essentially meaningless without a commensurate level of board control. Auckland Council is nowhere near being represented on the controlling entities at a level that would reflect its shareholding.
Control of these water entities is split among Maori iwi elites, who also get a say on who else is on the boards. This is nothing short of a slow-moving coup that removes control of council and ratepayer assets, giving it to unelected race-based operatives. The co-governance agenda is still in full swing and the apathy of Kiwi voters as their assets are being stripped from under them is astonishing.
The Three Waters reforms were meant to help local councils deal with the cost of investment in water infrastructure – estimated to be about $130 billion-$185 billion over the next 30 years.
Modelling commissioned by the Government reckoned those costs would push up household water and rates bills to as much as $9000 a year by 2051.
McAnulty previously said his model would deliver savings to households of $2770-$5400 per year by 2054.
McAnulty said they would be speeding up the process to have the bill reported back to the House at the end of July, effectively shortening the submissions process, and giving more long-term certainty to councils going through long-term plans.
He said the need for reform was highlighted by recent cyclone damage.
“The damage we have seen from severe weather events is a stark reminder that the resilience of our water system will continue to be tested.”
NZ Herald
Oh, now we see absolutely heroic claims that the recent cyclone damage would have been prevented by water reform. Really? How? By appeasing the Maori gods?
None of the amalgamations since Noah was a boy playing with boats in his bathtub, have delivered any of the claimed benefits promoted by the dishonest politicians pushing these agendas.
The energy reforms of Max Bradford are a case in point. Rodney Hide’s super city plan for Auckland is likewise a complete dog with none of the savings or benefits that he pushed. The polytech reforms of Chris Hipkins are an abject failure, and so too are Andrew Little’s health reforms.
None have worked as intended. Yet they still plough on with boondoggles, blithely insisting we are all wrong when even Blind Freddy can see the water reforms will fail. But by the time we realise it, those responsible will have gifted themselves royal honours and jogged off to high paying sinecure positions, and they will never be held accountable.
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