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Dear John, Greetings to all of you and my thanks for the work you are doing to stay home and follow the Covid-19 level 3 protocols. I also warmly thank all who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 at this time. You are doing your bit to get Auckland and the Waikato out of level 3. Three Waters Initiative Labour have announced that despite overwhelming opposition, they are making their Three Waters plans compulsory. They are bringing a bill to Parliament that will remove your council’s right to opt-out, and they are forcing their asset grab on every council in the country. Under Labour’s centralisation plan, your elected council will lose control of the water assets you’ve paid to own over decades. Labour’s Three Waters plan must be stopped. National will fight it with everything we’ve got, but we need your help – please sign our petition today. https://www.national.org.nz/stop-the-three-waters-asset-grab The Three Waters Initiative is being pushed hard by the Government although they still can’t convincingly explain how councils and communities would retain control of their water assets under the Three Waters plans. Councils have been told they will ‘collectively’ own the new water entities, but the Government cannot specify exactly what proportion of ownership each would have. The Finance Minister can’t explain how the 20-odd councils in one entity would be fairly represented by only six seats on a ‘representative group’ board. The current ownership by our councils is not academic. These are water assets that ratepayers have paid for over decades and service delivery they rightly expect to be able to hold accountable particularly in Auckland. Under Labour’s four entity model for the whole country, your council won’t know how much it owns, and you, the ratepayer, won’t know how much influence or control you’ll have, if any. National will continue to fight the Three Waters asset grab every step of the way, and the next government we form will unwind the entities and return seized assets to their rightful council owners. Sign our petition now. https://www.national.org.nz/stop-the-three-waters-asset-grab Auckland still locked down and what end is in sight? The Government kept Auckland at alert level 3 and other parts of the country at level 2 after announcing its traffic light plan before Labour Weekend. The plan to get Auckland out of lockdown has been a very long time coming. Now the Labour Government clearly has done little planning, has few ideas on the consequences of its actions and has provided no hope for Aucklanders. The National Opposition have been calling for the Prime Minister to lay out the conditions and timeframe for Auckland coming out of level 3. We announced a detailed Opening Up plan in September and a comprehensive Back to Business plan in October. Why didn’t the PM say weeks ago that Level 3 won't be eased until there is 90% double vaccination, which could take another month or more now? Around the country I am hearing people calling for more certainty and a return to normal trading levels. Our National Opposition think it’s time to get moving and we want the 1st of December to be the day that we all get our freedom back and the whole country gets back to business. If this doesn’t happen, what will Auckland’s retailers, cafes, restaurants, gyms, hairdressers, beauticians, chiropractors and other service industries do without the opportunity for Christmas trading? At the very least you deserve a Government that acts with urgency to get you back to your ‘normal’ life. My team and I are committed to ending lockdowns, stopping the unprecedented borrowing, reopening our economy, backing new businesses and getting schools open - and Christmas. Best wishes and take care, Judith.
Hon Judith
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