Council does not support government’s three waters model
Published on 23 March 2022
Whanganui District councillors do not support the government’s three waters reform programme and intend now to look at options for lobbying central government.
The council will engage with the Whanganui community on how best to influence the outcome of the reforms.
In resolutions passed at the March council meeting held on Tuesday, councillors unanimously agreed that they did not support the government’s model. Mayor Hamish McDouall said the council had still not received a response from the government on questions it had asked in late September 2021.
“We are frustrated with the ridiculous time frame for these reforms. I’ve said right from the start that the Future of Local Government reforms should take place first, then the review of the Resource Management Act – and then the three waters reform. Taumata Arowai, the new water services regulator, should be well up and running first, before we make changes to the delivery model.”
In February Communities 4 Local Democracy Coalition (C4LD) chair, Helen Worboys, Mayor of Manawatū, spoke at a full meeting of the council, inviting Whanganui District Council to join the coalition which has taken alternative three waters reform propositions to the government.
Councillors attended a workshop on Tuesday morning where Tim Cadogan Mayor of Central Otago represented the Three Waters Reform Governance Working Group (which recently released its report to the Minister of Local Government) and Andreas Heuser from Castalia presented options being put forward by C4LD.
A report on whether Whanganui District Council should join C4LD was presented to the council meeting that afternoon by chief financial officer Mike Fermor. Mike Fermor said, “While we have concerns with the overall reform process, we do not recommend joining Communities 4 Local Democracy.”
He said, “Joining C4LD may compromise the council’s ability to negotiate with the government on three waters reform, particularly regarding reimbursement for the value of community assets that were sold to reduce three waters debt.
There were significant gaps in the information provided, he said. “A regional approach, which is one of the options proposed by C4LD, may see Whanganui worse off, as some of our regional neighbours have significant issues with their three waters systems to address urgently - which will require significant funding.”
The council’s chief executive, David Langford, said influencing a better outcome could be achieved in many different ways including the council lobbying directly with central government, or by joining lobby groups such as C4LD in the future. “The challenge with C4LD is they are saying more than no to central government’s three waters delivery model; they also have their own models.”
He said, “We haven’t yet engaged with our community to understand whether Whanganui would support those models so it isn’t appropriate for us to sign up to them at this point in time.”
Mayor Hamish said it had been a “long, hard debate.” He said, “The process suggests we should defer the decision whether to join C4LD. But we need to send a clear flag to central government that we are extremely disappointed and against what is a flawed model and a piece of bad policy making.”