It wasn’t needed, however, as Labour with its majority passed the Water Services Entities Bill through its third and final reading today, despite opposition from each of the four other parties from all sides of the political spectrum.
Its passing came amid a fiery debate with National and Act MPs, who have opposed the reforms vehemently throughout the process, giving it one last shot to paint their own pictures of rushed and ineffective legislation, while railing against removing assets from local councils and Māori representation.
They have both vowed to repeal the law if they hold power after the 2023 elections.
The Greens supported most of the reforms and the bill through its first and second readings but held off today due to concerns about a lack of protections from privatisation.
Meanwhile, Te Pāti Māori was also opposed, saying despite claims from both sides of the House it did not implement “co-governance” and tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination, had been ignored.
The bill is the first of three as part of the reforms, aimed to ensure affordable drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services are available across the country.
While the aim of the reforms has relatively widespread support, it is the manner in which they have been proposed that has been controversial, including taking water assets from 67 councils and amalgamating them into one of four massive water entities.
The councils will own these entities through a shareholding and will co-govern them with mana whenua.
Due to earlier opposition to the reforms, the Government brought together nine mayors and nine iwi representatives to find their own solutions, in the end accepting nearly all the group’s 47 recommendations.
Mahuta started her speech by focusing on the root issues the law was designed to address, the boil water notices, no swim notices and regular burst storm and wastewater pipes all over the country.
“Seeping sewage into our pristine lakes like Taupō, happens... In a country like ours this is just not good enough.”
She spoke of climate change and added pressure it would have on ageing infrastructure.
Mahuta said centralising the water infrastructure would reduce costs on local councils, and in turn, keep rates down at a time of rising cost of living pressures.
She said the Government was fixing a legacy problem “left to languish the last two decades”.
She also took a dig at the Opposition and how it did not support measures to ensure water assets could not be privatised.
“This Government is 100 per cent committed to ensuring our water assets remain in public ownership, and we call on the Opposition to make the same commitment to New Zealanders.”
In a press release, Mahuta said 34,000 New Zealanders got sick from drinking water each year and household water costs were up to $9000 a year.
National Party local government spokesman Simon Watts meanwhile reiterated he and his colleagues were “strongly opposed” and would repeal the law if elected in 2023.
As he began the North Shore MP was heckled by Labour MPs, Cabinet Minister Peeni Henare calling out “You cannot swim at the beach on the North Shore!”, referencing the regular sewerage overflows.
Watts said the reforms were one of the most controversial in recent times, referencing the 88,000 submissions with the majority opposed.
“Most mayors and councils across this country support the need for reform, to improve water infrastructure, but strongly oppose this bill as a means to achieve those ends.”
He said National would come up with its own solution that would “achieve the desired outcomes for our communities without the loss of control and complexity that this Labour water services entities model brings”.
Act Party local government spokesman Simon Court said they agreed there was a problem with Three Waters infrastructure but it could be solved within the existing system.
Their solution would involve assets remaining with councils with a regulator, already-existing Taumata Arowai, ensuring they were managed appropriately and meeting environmental commitments.
They would also allow councils to seek private investment to upgrade and maintain assets.
“This Government thinks that only ratepayers and taxpayers can pay for stuff.”
On co-governance with iwi and hapū, Court said while the Waitangi Tribunal might acknowledge there exist special rights and interests because of the Treaty of Waitangi, it was Parliament that made laws.
Green Party MP Eugenie Sage said they supported many aspects of the bill and the need for urgent reform but were concerned about a lack of any provisions protecting from privatising water assets.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said her party also opposed the bill, but primarily because it did not implement co-governance and ignored Māori self-determination, tino rangatiratanga.
“Public water infrastructure absolutely should not be sold off, but it also doesn’t need to be entrenched.
“It needs to be returned to its rightful kaitiaki—its owners; tangata whenua—who, as many hapū and iwi remind today, would have ensured that we could still drink, collect kai, and swim in the wai.”
Ngarewa-Packer said the “conservative race-baiting campaign run by right-wing extremists and misinformation” had whipped up opposition to the point people did not understand what the reforms proposed.
“They do not even guarantee Māori representation, let alone iwi representation, on the actual governance entities.
“While iwi and councils will both appoint a body that then appoints the entities, these degrees of separation are designed to limit Māori power through not creating precedents or co-governance.”
Ngarewa-Packer said they wanted negotiations to see between Government and hapū and iwi on Māori rights and interests in water.
“What we see now is reform that is weak. Our wai is in crisis, and we need transformation, not tinkering.”
The law passed establishes four new publicly-owned water services entities, and provides for the transfer to them of existing Three Waters workforce and expertise from local authorities.
-By Michael Neilson
