John --



Thank you for your support in the fight against Labour’s Three Waters reforms. I’m writing with a quick update on the campaign. I’ll be doing these regularly from now on – I hope you enjoy them!



It’s been a busy couple of weeks with the submissions on the Water Services Entities Bill now closed. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to submit through the National Party website; we collected and delivered over 16,000 submissions, and the Select Committee received over 88,000 submissions. 



The message from this is clear. Kiwis overwhelmingly reject Three Waters.



88,324 submissions, and Labour still isn’t listening



Labour doesn’t care what the public has to say and will rush through Three Waters despite intense opposition.



I moved that the Select Committee should take extra time in light of the huge number of submissions received on the Bill, but despite all other political partieson the committeeagreeing with me, Labour used its absolute majority to block it.



Labour also used its majority to prevent most of the people and organisations who asked to make an oral submission via submissions collected by National from doing so.



Over 1000 of you asked to speak to your submission in person, and you should be able to.  



It is clear that thousands of Kiwis oppose this reformbutLabour has doubled downby pushingitthrough Parliament as quickly as possible.Labourcares more about getting the Three Waters reforms out of the public eye than listening to the legitimate concerns of New Zealanders and hearing what you have to say about it.



Questioning Nanaia Mahuta in Parliament



When the Prime Minister spoke at the Local Government New Zealand conference, she promised councils that under her watch, there would be no more reforms unless they were sought and their direction was agreed on.However, it seems her Minister for Local Government didn’t get the memoand made Three Waterscompulsory, giving councils no option but to hand over their water assets to unaccountable mega entities.



Labour has piled Local Government with reforms they haven’t asked for, Nanaia Mahuta should listen to the Prime Minister and stopthereformscouncilsoppose.



Watch here:



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Three Waters spending isthrough the roof



Kiwi taxpayers are paying the price for these reformswith more than$26mspent on consultants alone.These costs are increasing by more than $1 million a month. At the end of February, the amount spent was $21 million. At the end of May, it was $26 million, and every month Labour burns more cash trying tofigure out and sell these reforms that won’t work.



While all this money is being paid out to consultants in Wellington, not a single meterof pipe has been delivered to communities in need.Labour simply can’t deliver.



Instead, Labour is addicted to spending and burning through cash on Three Waters like there’s no tomorrow. On top of consultant costs,it has spent$2.5 in bribes to councilsto try toconvince them to support Three Waters.



Meanwhile,I uncovered that they don’t know how much the IST transition to their new entities will cost but that it could be over $500 million.



Speaking at LGNZ



I spoke at at this year’s LGNZ conferencewhere I set out the fundamental principles that will guide National’s Three Waters reforms.



Labour doesn’t care whatlocal councilsthink and is more than happy to lay the blame for problems at their feet, but National knows the solutions to all our problems can’t be found in Wellington.Only by partnering with Local Government can we solve the real issues around Three Waters.



Ourmodel will:



- maintain localownership ofwaterassets and respectlocalproperty rights.

- provide tools for asset owners to achieve sustainable financing and revenue adequacy.

- provide a regulatory backstop for incentive management and water quality within an efficient and effective regulatory environment.

- safeguard against privatisation.

- respect the role of mana whenua, but not introduce co-governance of water assets.

- provide a financial assistance regime for districts that need it and assistance with transitions to sustainable models.



The fight against Three Waters has just begun, and National will fight the government every step of the way to stop these broken reforms from going through.



If you haven’t already, please sign our petition to stop Three Waters <[link removed]>



Regards,

Simon Watts | Spokesperson for Local Government







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NZ National Party - 41 Pipitea St, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

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