The Front Page: Will the Affordable Water Reform rebranding change voters’ minds about Three Waters?

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announcing their Affordable Water Reform scheme, set to replace Three Waters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Three Waters is dead - long live ‘Affordable Water Reform’.

The Government last week announced a revised version of their policy to improve the quality of the country’s waste, storm and drinking water systems.

As part of the changes announced by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty, there will be 10 regionally owned and led public water entities, instead of the four originally proposed, to take over management of those systems.

The Three Waters name has also been dropped in favour of Affordable Water Reform, but NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan is unconvinced the name change will stick.

“I don’t think anyone will stop calling it Three Waters,” he told The Front Page, the Herald’s daily politics podcast. “I think the name has stuck. You [could] see at the press conference actually - um, when people were calling it Three Waters and Affordable Water Reform, you could see Chris Hipkins sort of mischievously smiling, as if he knew that it was a bit ridiculous to pretend that Three Waters was gone.”

Coughlan says that the refresh does help the Government, as there is a lot of evidence that people don’t fully understand what the reforms are about, even if they aren’t fond of the move.

“Certainly, their explanation for why they’re doing it is a pretty good one. No one likes to think that the water that comes out of their taps might be contaminated, and no one wants to think that rates are going up. So the Government saying, ‘We’re gonna keep your rates low, and your water quality good’ - I think that that might win over some people.

“But certainly I think they’ve mismanaged this reform process so utterly that I don’t think they’ll change many minds, because I think many minds are made up.”

National and Act are both opposed to the reforms, with National leader Christopher Luxon vowing to revoke the “dumb policy” if elected in October.

However, Coughlan says that this year will be a cost-of-living election, and Affordable Water Reform is unlikely to be a concern for many voters when they head to the polls - though the handling of the reforms could still be troublesome for Labour.

“I think it’s a bigger issue than we often think, simply because it’s become an issue of trust and an issue of competence, and I think Labour, with the lack of transparency that it’s sometimes shown around Three Waters issues, has fallen short of the standards that public expects on transparency and trust.

“But I think as you get close to the election, I’m not really sure voters will care that much about water. I think they’ll have much more pressing things to worry about.”

So, how much will these reforms potentially save people on their water bills? What has happened to the co-governance aspect of the reforms? And what have other parties offered as alternatives to the plan?

Listen to today’s full episode of The Front Page podcast to find out.