Those councils that have been more faithful stewards of their water and wastewater infrastructure to date, investing significant ratepayer money for the purpose, might well cry foul over this.
They are in effect subsidising councils that have underperformed, and so have both less to lose and more to gain from the reform, by being relieved of responsibility for providing safe drinking water to their ratepayers, along with environmentally acceptable wastewater treatment.
Many councils might well ask, "What are we left with but roads, libraries and parks as a result of this reform? Is this literally the beginning of the end of local government as we know it?"
The pretext behind all of this is threefold. First, that an estimated $185 billion of investment is needed over the next 30-40 years to "catch up" on decades of under-investment and provide safe and environmentally sustainable water and wastewater services throughout Aotearoa.
This is simply too big a challenge to meet under the current model.
Second, that there would be much greater efficiency through economies of scale if the investments in capital projects required are delivered through four entities, rather than the nearly 70 city and district councils at present, which may be less able or equipped in terms of skill, expertise and resources to get this work done.
Third, that the four new entities would be released from shackles on local government borrowing, so that the $185b needed can more realistically be debt-funded.
The most recent advice received is that without these reforms, rural ratepayers would face a 13-fold increase in rates in real terms by 2051, and between 1.5- and seven-fold for urban ratepayers.
The reforms would largely avoid that escalation, and maintain average household costs for three-waters services close to present levels across all communities, rural and urban.
The logic of more equitable cost sharing across a broader ratepayer base is hard to argue with. In Hawke's Bay, we need to recognise how financially challenging it is for smaller councils like Central Hawke's Bay to meet the wastewater treatment standards the Waipawa and Tukituki rivers deserve, and be willing to share the burden.
The real question is one of extent, and how far this reform needs to go.
In Hawke's Bay, a proactive attempt to seize the initiative by shaping and sizing a regional three waters delivery model designed by us and for us, has not gained traction in Wellington.
We would instead be swept into what is known as "Entity C", spanning from the East Cape to Marlborough.
The reality, though, is we are probably now past the point of no return, short of a local authority revolt at least.
The more realistic option is to do what we can to ensure effective representation or voice on the governing board of the new entity, so that localised solutions such as the aspiration for chlorine-free water in Napier can still be promoted.
Sitting alongside this truly seismic shift in local government are the most significant reforms of our resource management system since the late 1980s.
The much-maligned Resource Management Act would be repealed and replaced with three new pieces of legislation, including a new Natural and Built Environments Act.
This reform also signals substantial consolidation of council functions. Instead of the current 100 local authority plans, there would now be 14 combined plans, one for each region.
There are real advantages to this in terms of simplifying our hopelessly over-complicated planning and regulatory landscape.
Sitting over these combined plans would be regional spatial strategies linking central government policy direction and the desired outcomes for a given region, with local authority long-term funding plans for infrastructure and transport.
There is simply no such linkage now.
Under the exposure draft of the new legislation released on Tuesday this week, a planning committee would be set up for each region, including representatives of mana whenua and one person nominated by each local authority, to deliver the new combined plans.
It has been said this Government is big on promises and poor on delivery. Some may even hope this trend continues in the local government context, and that the reforms will also fail.
Whatever your views on the merits of what I have outlined, you should at least be alive to what is at stake.
We are facing change at a scale and pace which would make the Hawke's Bay amalgamation debate in recent years look like a quaint and cosy tea party.
• Martin Williams is a Napier-based Hawke's Bay Regional councillor.
