Vince Cocurullo: What do the Three Waters reform proposals mean?

The Three Waters reforms will see all water assets - including water treatment plants, pipes carrying water, wastewater plants and stormwater pipes and drainage areas - move from local council management and ownership across to a centralised management structure. Photo / Michael Cunningham

OPINION

Three Waters - two options, one decision

There’s a lot of information flying around at the moment about Government reforms proposed for our waste, storm and drinking water. I get calls all the time asking what the difference is between Labour’s Three Waters reforms and National’s Local Water Done Well, so I thought it might be helpful to summarise them in this column (based on the information publicly available).

Three Waters reforms

The Three Waters reforms will see all water assets - including water treatment plants, pipes carrying water, wastewater plants and stormwater pipes and drainage areas - move from local council management and ownership across to a centralised management structure. Assuming the current Labour policy is retained, this will result in the transfer of ownership (in the traditional sense) of the councils’ Three Waters assets to the new Entity A, with councils being shareholders of that entity. These assets will no longer be owned by councils or appear on council balance sheets. In return, councils can expect to receive funding under the Government’s ‘No Worse Off’ tranche of funding. However, the amount is yet to be determined.

The management of these assets, including their maintenance and improvement, will be the responsibility of four newly created publicly owned water entities: Entity A (that’s us – Auckland and up), B (central North Island), C (the lower East Coast of the North Island, and the top of the South Island) and D (the rest of the South Island). Councils will have shares in the new entity, at the rate of one share per 50,000 people. Each council will have at least one share.

Entities will be governed by independent boards, appointed by a Regional Representative Group, based on their skills, knowledge and experience. Councils and mana whenua will form part of the Regional Representative Group that will appoint members of the Water Service Entity Board, based on their skills. The number of votes the council gets to vote for the board is proportional to their shares.

Local Water Done Well

The proposed Local Water Done Well water management plan has one key difference: councils keep ownership and control. This plan promises to repeal the Three Waters reforms, restore council control, set strict rules for water quality and investment in infrastructure and ensure water services are financially sustainable.

National’s plan is closely aligned with the recommendation from Communities 4 Local Democracy (C4LD), which has representatives from the majority of councils in NZ, including Whangārei District Council. This plan would introduce a ‘regulatory backstop as a last resort mechanism’, which means a National-led government would step in if any council wasn’t able to deliver a viable plan for their own water management.

Under both plans, there will be a higher bar set for water quality and infrastructure, which means there will be costs to cover, and both plans agree councils shouldn’t under-invest in water infrastructure.

So, how are councils expected to meet the costs of infrastructure, including maintenance, depreciation and expected growth?

This is the million-dollar (or billion-dollar!) question. As the famous saying goes, ‘the devil is in the details’ – but to use another famous saying, ‘there is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet’!

As mayor, my interests will always lie with the people of our district and region.