Hi John,

One of the things that most concerns me about the entire Three Waters reform process is how willing Labour has been to completely ignore the concerns of communities and Local Government to pursue their agenda.

Whether it’s their sham consultations with Councils that happened after Cabinet had already made key decisions behind closed doors, or choosing to only see a handful of the thousands of New Zealanders who submitted against the Three Waters Bill, Labour has shown that they aren’t interested in what you have to say.

The list of issues with these reforms is long: the loss of community voice, the $2.5 billion in bribes to Councils, and the agenda of centralisation over outcomes, and all those concerns are valid – Labour should be listening.

I’ll keep fighting to make Labour accountable to you on Three Waters, and if elected in 2023 National will repeal and replace these broken reforms.

LABOUR IS STILL IGNORING COMMUNITIES

Yesterday, I put communities concerns about how they’ve been engaged with directly to the Minister for Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta. Hearing from Mayors and Councillors over the last few weeks has shown me just how poorly our elected representatives have been treated. They spoke of being left out, insulted, and some even said, nearly in tears, that they wouldn’t be standing again because of it.

That’s appalling.

Despite the fact Nanaia Mahuta has already spent over $3 million of your money promoting her Three Waters policy and blaming Local Government for water quality issues, she refuses to take any responsibility for the way she and Labour have treated our Councils and communities.

Watch my question in Parliament here.

THREE WATERS NUMBERS JUST DON'T ADD UP

Something that almost every Local Council has brought up at Select Committee was the Government’s massively overblown costings for Three Waters. Labour has sold their reforms on the basis that the cost to ratepayers without them would be between $120b and $185b. Those numbers, prepared by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland don’t match up with analysis from Councils and independent assessment agencies.

Castalia, a third-party assessment agency said, "The reform scenario was based on faulty assumptions and flawed analysis."

Farrier Swier, another independent agency appointed to have a look at the financial modelling, said the “analysis cannot be used to definitively conclude that the amalgamation in and of itself will lead to material efficiency gains in New Zealand."

Seemingly, Labour is convinced that the Water Industry Commission for Scotland knows more about what’s going on than Local Councils and independent contractors.

Labour will do anything to sell these reforms to the public.

LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM TO SOLVE

The Government can’t seem to decide what problem they’re trying to solve. First, they ran advertisements with brown sludge running out of taps telling New Zealanders the problem was water quality. On Tuesday night, when I questioned the Minister about the need for reform, she told me it was about funding for infrastructure.

There are problems with infrastructure financing, and in water quality, but it’s clear with the reforms Labour are proposing that they can’t even decide what problems they are trying to solve.

The truth is that the Labour Government is driven by centralisation, whether it’s in Education, the Health system or Three Waters, they aren’t happy unless it's centralised and under their control.

Watch me question the Minister earlier this week here.

Your support is critical to keeping up our fight against Labour’s Three Waters. In particular, I’d like to thank those who sent us in photos of the messages they wanted to send to the Government.

My message to you is clear, National hears your voice, and we have your back.

Regards,

Simon Watts
Spokesperson for Local Government