She said the reforms, which will take water assets such as pipes and reservoirs from councils and roll them into four enormous water entities that councils will jointly own and co-govern with iwi, will not be substantially altered.
"It has to be done," Ardern said, "and by taking the leap, there are opportunities to be found."
Ardern has confirmed changes being made after submissions closed on July 22 were minor and did not fundamentally alter the co-governance aspects of the reforms that have generated the most controversy. The entities will be governed by boards that are ultimately selected jointly by councils and mana whenua.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta is scheduled to report back for a second reading of the legislation on November 11.
This will occur, then, a month after the local government elections, when we will have some freshly-minted mayors and councillors. Currently, the Three Waters reform has split New Zealand's 67 councils, with 31 joining a splinter group opposed to the reforms and one council seceding from LGNZ completely.
Ardern, speaking at the LGNZ conference in Palmerston North last week, promised her Government would be led on any further reforms of the local authority sector by the councils themselves.
This was greeted with outright scorn among some southern civic leaders, in particular, who cited Three Waters as an example of the current Government's "duplicity".
Both major parties know the Three Waters reforms have the potential to be a big player in next year's general election. In the run-up to the close of public submissions on the legislation, the Labour Party used its campaign mailing list to encourage supporters to submit in favour and the National Party did the same, encouraging its backers to register their opposition.
To try and sweeten the taste for it, the Government last week announced councils would be offered a share of $44m to help transition to the new model. This was on top of the $2.5 billion offered to councils last year.
Again, there have been discussions about this contentious reform of our major water infrastructure but one key element remains; unaddressed and apparently unassailable.
As we have noted previously, few refute the Treaty of Waitangi is binding and we share obligations to the principles of the document. There may be compelling reasons to extend these principles into control of our water supply and disposal, but requests to have them outlined seem unheard.
Come the third reading of the Water Services Entities Bill, the Government should be prepared to roll out much clearer information on why the co-governance model is necessary and how it will work.
