Democracy HQ A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

Earlier this month we saw some of the most damning criticism of the Government's Three Waters agenda to date from the Auditor-General and public law experts.

The Government has claimed it will run our water assets better. However, Auditor-General John Ryan has written to Parliament to express concerns, saying the proposal has 'potential governance weaknesses” and 'could have an adverse effect on public accountability, transparency, and organisational performance”. These are exactly the same concerns the public has been telling the Government for months.

The Government claims that local communities and councils will continue to 'own” shares in their water assets. However, a legal opinion says these claims 'are false, misleading, and deceptive.”

Public law firm, Franks Ogilvie, issued the opinion that was peer-reviewed by Gary Judd QC. It contained some of the most scathing legal criticism seen since Justice Peter Mahon coined the phrase 'an orchestrated litany of lies”.

Confuse?

They say: 'Ministers appear to have cold-bloodedly decided to confuse councils and ratepayers with false statements” and that the Government's claims 'are calculated to deceive.” Gary Judd QC is even blunter, saying, 'When all the lying statements are put together…the government's effrontery is breath-taking”.

This isn't media commentary or angry people putting in their two cents on Facebook. Instead, these are the opinions of the Auditor General, a Queen's Counsel, and a respected public law firm – and is unprecedented professional criticism.

Even if you agree there is a need for reform, particularly for smaller councils that struggle to fund essential services, it's becoming clearer that the Government's ‘solution' and their sales pitch don't stand up to scrutiny.

It has been on shaky ground since the very beginning. When Castalia, an international consulting firm, peer reviewed Three Waters they said it was based on 'faulty assumptions and flawed analysis”. They say that Government overestimated both the problem and the cost of councils continuing to maintain their infrastructure.

In Tauranga

In Tauranga, ratepayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in micro filtration to have the best drinking water in New Zealand with a third water plant opening soon. Over a hundred million spent on the southern pipeline and Te Maunga upgrades to protect our harbour, over a hundred million dollars on stormwater upgrades following the 2005 floods - we've provided this world class infrastructure and have the rates bills to prove it!

Ironically, the Government's proposal is likely to see less investment in Tauranga's infrastructure as our water bills are siphoned off to support areas that haven't invested as heavily in core services. We're going to be paying twice! It may be the right thing to pay for upgrades throughout New Zealand but there is no way Government's proposal will be more efficient as claimed because they've promised to keep all the current Three Waters jobs in every council!

New Zealand may very well need a change but this proposal isn't the change we need.