Animal analogies were deployed by Dunedin city councillors laying into the Government about Three Waters reform.
Cr Jim O’Malley said when reform was emerging years ago he saw "a shape out in the forest" he believed was a wolf, but which others thought could be a bunny rabbit.
It had since got closer.
"The wolf is at the door," Cr O’Malley said at yesterday’s Dunedin City Council meeting.
Cr David Benson-Pope did not quite agree.
"I think it’s been a dog from the get-go," he said.
Cr Benson-Pope described the creature as the brainchild of the Department of Internal Affairs that was sold to the National Party and then picked up by Labour.
Cr Carmen Houlahan said councillors had repeatedly made the same points, as if it were Groundhog Day, and department officials failed to produce answers.
Even now, it was unclear who someone building a house might approach if they had an infrastructure query, she said.
"What sort of Mickey Mouse operation is this?"
Deputy mayor Sophie Barker referenced Animal Farm, by George Orwell.
"I think perhaps it’s a pig that we’re trying to apply lipstick to while it’s running away furiously."
