From the Stratford District mayor’s desk: Three Waters - What could possibly go wrong?

Mayor Neil Volzke (right) says any thought of the Government ditching the Three Waters legislation have now been scuttled completely. Photo / Ilona Hanne

Opinion:

The year-end is fast approaching and the Christmas break looms but there is certainly no slowdown or reduction in the volume of legislative reforms coming out of Wellington.

In fact, the Government has had its foot hard on the accelerator on a number of the major legislative reforms, including the highly contentious Three Waters legislation. Any thoughts of the Government ditching this legislation have now been scuttled completely and as predicted the Water Services Entities Bill has been passed before Christmas.

This is despite the hiccup around the introduction of the entrenchment clause that caused the major uproar over the last week. Described as a mistake by one party and a constitutional threat by others, in reality, it was a non-helpful sidetrack that distracted attention away from the real issues that this legislation brings and the concerns that many councils have been expressing.

I like quoting the wisdom often contained in old sayings. One such adage and oxymoron comes to mind that describes this situation perfectly, “make haste slowly”. If applied to this legislation, most likely, the entrenchment fiasco would have been avoided.

As for the remainder of the Water Services Entities Bill, there have been some changes following the receipt of 88,000 submissions but it would be generous to say the changes were anything more than tinkering around the edges.

The sweeping changes sought by opponents have not occurred. The controversial co-governance arrangements, ownership and control issues, and the lack of accountability and representation concerns will continue to fuel the debate as we head towards the 2023 election.

Sitting in the background are more issues that are now coming to the fore, some being identified by the Transition Unit that is signalling it will struggle to have everything in place to enable a smooth changeover at the July 1, 2024 deadline.

For example, it’s quite possible that councils will be asked to provide office space for our current employees, who will soon be former employees, as they take up their new roles with the new Water Entity B. This is because it is likely that the new Entities won’t have space of their own available to accommodate their own workforce and at this moment in time, they don’t know where various services will be located or operate from.

Another example is the possibility that councils may be required to provide the invoicing service for the new entities. To be clear, the current water services rates charged to our users by the council will disappear and will be replaced with a water services charge imposed by the Water Entity. The problem is that the council will have no say in setting that charge or how it is applied across the widespread area that makes up Entity B. There are still bucketloads of questions around this whole cost structure issue and who will pay for what.

One thing I can guarantee is that if this situation does become a reality, it will end up with the district council taking the flak for charges and problems that we are not responsible for.

We know this because we already experience this type of criticism over the Taranaki Regional Councils (TRC) rate charges that are included on the district councils’ rates invoice. We live with this arrangement because it is a cost-effective way for the regional council rates to be collected and after all, their ratepayers are also our ratepayers. But with water Entity B, their customers are also in Ōpotiki, Tauranga, Raglan, Taupo, Whanganui and beyond and they are not our ratepayers; that’s the difference.

Please forgive my sarcasm, but I thought one of the intended outcomes of the water reforms was to separate water services from councils. Now it seems that the intention is to leave behind the bits they don’t want or can’t do. I ask myself, what could possibly go wrong?