Three Waters - Tararua district submissions need to raise questions for rural communities

People in the Tararua District need to have their say on the Three Waters legislation. Photo / NZME

Where would rural communities stand under Three Waters?

That's one of the concerns Tararua District Council wants residents to consider in submissions to the Government's proposal that would create four entities to run New Zealand's drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services.

People can make submissions to the Select Committee on the Water Services Entities Bill until Friday.

Mayor Tracey Collis said Communities 4 Local Democracy, which the council became part of last year to try to work with the Government, had drafted submissions that reflected heavily on what benefits the legislation offered rural communities.

"I think it's important people tell their stories and what the impacts will be.

"It's more impactful if they can hear that from the community as well, what their genuine concerns are."

Bryan Nicholson - council supported reform but not the Government's plan for Three Waters. Photo / Leanne Warr

Chief executive Bryan Nicholson said the council supported reform, but not the Government's plan for Three Waters.

The funding model was broken and reform was needed, but there were still so many unanswered questions around the plan and how it would affect rural communities.

Nicholson said the council would support a reform modelled around a shared services approach.

"Based on the funding model of raising debt levels, we should benefit from it. But where would we sit in the pecking order?"

His concern was around localism and how well the entities would know the communities.

"There's no sense how they're going to achieve that."

He said they could possibly achieve it in the likes of Wellington, but not at a local level.

"It's more than just water for what it means for small communities. What about economic decisions around it – attracting and retaining our industries?

"What sort of guarantee [is there] that the legislation or anything the Government is implementing that they won't centralise the bigger high-risk users?"

Group manager of infrastructure Chris Chapman said there was local accountability in the council.

"If someone from the district doesn't like what is happening, they have the right to access the manager of the service directly, the CEO of the organisation and the chair of the board in terms of mayor Tracey."

He said in a massive large-scale entity, someone could be waiting on hold for a while to talk to customer services, only to speak to someone who didn't have an answer.

"Elements of the bigger is better approach [are] correct. But there's certainly cons of that that I don't think have been explored or assessed properly."

Nicholson said he'd listened to one webinar where Australian councils had been talking about the success of their new entities.

He said he asked if any councils had pulled out and some rural councils had opted-out and when he asked why he was told "they didn't get the benefits because of the distance between their towns".

Chapman said a lot of aspirations and promises had been committed to, with no detail on how they'd be achieved.

There was also a question of what would happen if the plan failed.

"It could never really go back to what it was either," Chapman said. "You take away all of the resource, the local knowledge, the capacity capability from councils, centralise that, you never get it back."

Sally Dryland - rural schemes assets had not been safeguarded as yet. Photo / Leanne Warr

Sally Dryland, president of Federated Farmers Tararua district, said the members believed there was a better model than the Government's proposed four entities.

"There are concerns around the governance structure and we believe any representation should be accountable to voters."

She said the water service entities' operational independence could be compromised by Government policy statements or ministerial powers.

"Plus there appears to be a need to get further clarity re how Te Mana o Te Wai statements may influence ... the Resource Management Act."

Dryland said rural scheme assets had not been safe-guarded as yet and it was unclear if those in shared ownership or with maintenance agreements in place could be privatised or handed back to their rural communities' ownership.

She said Federated Farmers were making a submission.