Three Waters revamp: Mayors weigh in

Reaction to the government's shake-up of the Three Waters reforms came in thick and fast after the prime minister's announcement Thursday morning.

Reaction to the government's shake-up of the Three Waters reforms came in thick and fast after the prime minister's announcement Thursday morning.

The government was abandoning plans to establish four mega water entities, and instead creating 10 - which will be owned by local councils and run by a board.

Making the announcement, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the new model would deal with the current water infrastructure problems while ensuring the reform was affordable.

Under the new model, ratepayers appear to save less money annually compared with the original plan.

Mana whenua and local council representatives will continue to be equally represented in the groups advising the new regional water entities. Hipkins said it was not co-governance.

Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby said the announcement was a step in the right direction but "a number of questions remain".

"LGNZ has been advocating for stronger local voice and closer connections to communities in the model for a long time," Crosby said.

"There are 78 councils across the motu. Within local government there are many and varied views on reform. One thing the vast majority agree on is that water reform is necessary."

South Wairapapa Mayor Martin Connolly, who was at the announcement, felt the changes would give a council like his more say compared to the previous model. "We need it to be affordable, and we need it to be delivered in a way where we feel we're having the influence on decision making that we need," he said.

Manawatū District mayor Helen Worboys is co-chair of Communities 4 Local Democracy, which lobbied the government to water down the legislation.

Worboys told Midday Report the announcement was disappointing as there had been "no real meaningful change to the reform that we were seeking".

The government had not addressed the group's concerns around community property rights or local voice, she said.

"It is a win that we've got to the 10 entity model but it's the same model that we got before."

The lobby group would keep talking with the government, she said.

Grey District Mayor Tanya Gibson said the announcement was just minor tweaks around the edges.

"Our biggest concerns have always been the community property rights and the meaningful local voice and our ratepayers have paid for these assets over generations. So we still feel that nothing has been done to alleviate the confiscation without compensation for those people.

Ashburton Mayor Neal Brown said it was still too soon to say if changes had won him over.

"We'll see whether it's moved enough for us to support the reform, or there still needs to be more engagement with the communities," he said.

Clutha District mayor Bryan Cadogan was worried ratepayers across Southland and Otago would face financial hardship as a result of changes to the Three Water reform.

Cadogan was involved in working groups and lead local government groups on the reforms.

He said he was concerned for the future of his region as it had lost the critical mass that a South Island-wide entity would have provided.

Otago and Southland ratepayers would be worse off under the changes and would have been better to stick with the original plan, he said.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the changes were as expected, and the council was in support - but wanted it to go faster.

"At the end of the day we cannot afford to fix our infrastructure without reform," she said.

"Adding in a couple of extra years, financially that does provide a bit of a challenge with our long-term plan so we can continue working productively with the minister to see how that could be addressed.

"If there is the opportunity and we could get the support of other mayors we'd love to see if it's possible to actually speed up that timeline."

She was pleased the government was retaining the promised level of mana whenua representation.

New Plymouth District mayor Neil Holdom said he was happy with reform, but the gap between National and Labour was "miniscule". He called for them to put their political differences aside for the good of New Zealanders.

"Ultimately, given they're so close, there's an opportunity for both parties to come together to a shared agreement that'll work."

The changes announced today addressed a lot of councils' concerns, but he wanted the government to also step in and provide a Crown guarantee which would increase the level of debt and cost savings for the entities, Holdom said.

The government has committed to a Crown liquidity facility - an emergency fund which would provide further certainty to boost entities' borrowing limits - in its legislation. However, this would only be available to entities that had lost access to debt markets but remained creditworthy, and any drawdown would need to pass a public good benchmark.

His other major concern was the high cost of compliance.

"We've got Taumata Arowai, which is appropriate, and the Commerce Commission is the economic regulator. They need to rip out the rest of the red tape that they've written into these regulations ... a lot of the regulations are really about box-ticking and they won't make a difference in terms of keeping the crap out of the rivers or guaranteeing the quality of our drinking water."

He also supported the co-governance aspects.

"Our experience in New Plymouth is that working with mana whenua on the development of our water plans has worked really well for our community - they've added a lot of insights and historical knowledge.

"I'm quite comfortable with co-governance, it works here, it adds value and ultimately that value gets passed on to everybody that the network serves."

South Wairarapa mayor Martin Connolly was at this morning's announcement and said he also supported the changes.

"We need secure, safe water, we need it to be affordable and we need it to be delivered in a way where we feel we're having the influence on decision-making that we need."

He said a teleconference with the minister and mayors this morning seemed largely supportive as well.

"I was on the zoom meeting this morning and I can assure you that there was no animosity or no opposition at all, in fact what there was ... a constant stream of 'well done', 'yep', 'this is much nearer to what we need'.

"I mean obviously not everybody's happy and I think as the minister said we cannot expect perfection in a way that 60-odd councils are all going to be happy with - but I'm reasonably convinced that what has happened today will reassure a large number of councils."

There certainly were some who remained staunchly opposed, like Hurunui mayor Marie Black.

"The tweaks haven't really endeavoured to fix up some of the reform package to please a rural community like our own," she said.

"The issue remains for our district - who has invested heavily in their water infrastructure delivery over a number of years - to have the ability to remain influential on those rights of ownership and rights of influence. Fundamentally those principles remain.

"The Hurunui district, we're a large rural district ... one of the largest territorial authorities by footprint and one of the smallest populations, but notwithstanding that we've invested heavily.

"To at the stroke of a pen remove that opportunity doesn't sit comfortably with the district that I represent."

Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy was also unconvinced.

"I originally was getting a little excited and thought there might have been some major changes in approach and direction, but certainly when you see the fine print and hear what's happening, I mean we've had some cosmetic surgery over a name.

"Secondly we've said 'look we'll go from four to 10 entities and every mayor and every councils can be represented', but you're still a number of blocks away or steps away from the coal face.

"It's no different at all to me, and the confiscation of the assets of our community is still hard and fast for our community, and this won't change them at all."