John,



This week, Labour is on the defensive after the Auditor-General published a scathing submission on Three Waters, confirming our worst fears about these unaccountable and broken reforms.



It is highly unusual for the Auditor-General to actually submit to a select committee on a Bill like 3 Waters. The Auditor-General is Parliament’s watchdog on accountability and transparency and it speaks volumes about how bad the Bill is that they felt obliged to make a submission.



We’ve repeatedly told Labour that the public would have no way to hold their mega-entities to account, and local voices will get lost in a bureaucratic mess, and they haven’t listened.



This is yet another warning Labour looks set to ignore, and our communities will pay the price.



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AUDITOR-GENERAL SLAMS THREE WATERS



In their submission on Three Waters, the Office of the Auditor-General says the proposed Three Waters changes will result in a “serious diminution in accountability to the public for a critical service” and “no proposed audit scrutiny”. The Auditor-General is the public’s watchdog, auditing and reviewing public entities. This condemnation of the Three Waters Bill confirms our worst fears.



The submission delivers a damning analysis of the overlap of proposed governance structures, lack of access to information by the public to scrutinise the proposed water entities, a lack of performance measures, and a lack of integration with other reforms and local planning. Perhaps most shockingly, the Auditor-General says the Bill doesn’t even have enough information to say who controls the water entities.



The Government arrogantly ignored the criticism of local communities and National when it was told these reforms were unaccountable and not transparent. Now, they are being confronted with the reality.



Labour said that you were wrong and just “mischief making” for questioning who would control these entities. Now, their own watchdog is asking the same questions.



SUBMISSIONS BEGIN







The Select Committee has begun to hear oral submissions on the Three Waters Bill. We received over 88,000 submissions. Despite repeated attempts by Labour to hear from as few people as possible, we’ve been pushing hard for a full process where everyone gets a chance to have their say.



In particular we heard submissions from our rural communities and groups, these will be hit the hardest by these reforms, and will lose their voices in Labour’s mega-entities. The message from rural New Zealand couldn’t be clearer, they oppose these reforms.



We’ve also heard from Local Councils and organisations like Federated Farmers. What’s clear is that absolutely nobody thinks Labour has got this one right. Tune in on the Finance and Expenditure Committee’s Page <[link removed]> to listen to the submissions.



Labour is so keen to get this done quickly. On the first day alone, Mayors told us that their assets portfolios worth hundreds of millions would be replaced with shares in water entities, which they told us would have “zero value”. Other Mayors called out by name, their own Labour MPs, who promised to meet with them on Three Waters concerns but then refused to do so.



I encourage you to attend your local in-person submissions hearing and let the Government members your thoughts on the proposed legislation. For dates and locations, I have prepared a list that you can view here <[link removed]>.



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LABOUR REFUSES TO LISTEN



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I’ve been busy in Parliament fighting Three Waters and putting your concerns. This week, I raised the broken ownership model with Kieran McAnulty, a model that Councils, communities and now the Auditor-General calls messy, unclear and broken. The Minister's response speaks for itself:



“It is a matter of fact that ownership of the water entities remains with local Councils, and any suggestion otherwise, I think, is mischief making.”



Labour has sunk to a new low, branding concerns around ownership as mischief making. They’ve become so invested in their reforms that they’re willing to brand Local Councils, the Auditor-General, and most importantly, you, as just making mischief for standing up for local ownership.



For National, Local ownership of water assets is a bottom line, and we’ll repeal and replace these broken reforms.



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This process has been a sham from the start, and Labour has made it clear they don’t care what you have to say about Three Waters. We’re listening though, and we’ll repeal and replace these broken reforms.



Please sign our petition <[link removed]> to stop Three Waters if you haven’t already.



Regards,

Simon Watts | Spokesperson for Local Government



Ffollow me on social media to keep up to date with my work on Three Waters:



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