“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.”
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