Households in all communities – big and small – are told they'll benefit from the cost efficiencies of relinquishing their council water infrastructure.
The Government has launched an advertising campaign appealing directly to families paying soaring water rates, as it fights to win hearts and minds to its massive $120 billion-plus water reforms.
Whangārei District Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to "provisionally" opt out of the reforms that will expropriate drinking water, wastewater and stormwater assets from local authorities.
Mayor Sheryl Mai said that in addition to losing control of the council's “very well managed and maintained infrastructure”, residents would lose up to $150 million in borrowing power that those assets provided.
In opting out, the Northland city pre-empted an overnight data dump that officials say proves ratepayers in all 67 cities and districts, including Whangārei, would be better off without the water infrastructure on their balance sheets.
A decision is expected later this month on whether to make the water reforms mandatory, so councils can't opt out.
But first, Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta will today announce the number of entities and proposed boundaries for the three waters reform programme, and release the individual council dashboards. Those will show the savings to households across the country in embracing the reforms.
There are fears that with Whangārei's exit, the dams may break and other councils will follow. Auckland, Christchurch, Napier and Clutha are among those to express doubt about the reforms, though they all say they are digesting the local-level data provided to them overnight before making any hasty decisions.
An Internal Affairs Department spokesperson said the detailed information, including modelling showing all communities would benefit from the reform proposals, would be released today. "Whangārei District Council was made aware several days ago of the plan to release this information by the end of the month," he added.
In neighbouring Kaipara, Mayor Jason Smith told Newsroom that Whangārei's exit threw the entire reform model into disarray for the north of the country.
"Whangārei has opted out of the reforms as they’re entitled to do, but the entity models and data the Department of Internal Affairs has prepared will include them as being in," he said.
"Now the evidence base for Kaipara District Council’s decision-making is at best unreliable and at worst plainly wrong, as there’s a hole in the model." – Dr Jason Smith, Kaipara mayor
"We were told two weeks ago of the singular approach by Government to this. So now the evidence base for Kaipara District Council’s decision-making is at best unreliable and at worst plainly wrong, as there’s a hole in the model."
The little Kaipara district has had some of the worst problems with its water infrastructure in the country, by the mayor's own admission. Only one in four households is connected to treated, reticulated drinking water, and ratepayers are still paying off most of the $50 million debt incurred for the construction of a trouble-plagued wastewater plant.
So its ratepayers might be expected to be the biggest beneficiaries of the economies of scale to be achieved in merging their Three Waters networks with those of the Far North, Whangārei and Auckland – but now there is uncertainty over whether the two bigger urban centres will stay in or opt out.
"We can’t make such important decisions without trustworthy information," Smith said. "When will this be fixed?"
It is expected there will be four entities: one covering all of the South Island bar Marlborough and Tasman, and another crossing the Cook Strait to incorporate Wellington, Hawke's Bay and all the way up to East Cape. The Bay of Plenty will be grouped with Waikato and the central North Island, leaving Auckland and Northland grouped together in one giant northern water entity.
"All too often we see network failures like burst pipes in our streets and raw sewage spilling onto our beaches and into our rivers. These are signs our wastewater and stormwater systems are in trouble." – Three Waters reforms advertisement
Auckland, Christchurch and other councils are seeking assurance today that the water assets will remain not just in public ownership, but specifically in ratepayer ownership. That's a vexed point: the Government has been clear that it wants the assets removed entirely from council balance sheets, freeing up headroom for local authorities to borrow to develop their other infrastructure.
But both Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel have told Newsroom of their concerns that a future government might privatise the assets, if they are split away from the council balance sheets.
Now, the Government is going over the councils' heads to sell the reforms direct to affected families, arguing the reforms mean they will pay less for better water and sewerage services.
The alternative, its advertising campaign warns grimly, is ongoing problems with "nasties" in the drinking water. The ads are running full-page in newspapers and on video.
"All too often we see network failures like burst pipes in our streets and raw sewage spilling onto our beaches and into our rivers," one marketing message reads. "These are signs our wastewater and stormwater systems are in trouble."
"There is a reason why we have invested at the level we have, and that is because on a daily basis we see the consequence of our decisions on the lives of the pensioners and families struggling to make ends meet. We look those pensioners in the eye. Will the Government do that?" – Bryan Cadogan, Clutha mayor
Down south, Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon said the advertising campaign trivialised a very important matter and didn’t fairly represent the realities of water services and quality in New Zealand. "We found out yesterday the cost of this campaign is $3.5m which is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money."
And Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan expressed dismay at the advertising. "For me personally it was a slap in the face," he said.
"I've got pensioners that I already know are struggling to make ends meet. I know that if I impose a high rates increase, then they won't be able to afford their food, they won't be able to afford their power. And that's going to affect them a whole lot more than any water will ever affect them.
"That burden of responsibility weighs heavily on us. We get accused in these ads of not investing enough in the water infrastructure. Well, I've invested in our people. So they can maintain their dignity, so they can stay warm in their homes.
"Despite some public perceptions, I take it personally and I take it to heart, and I don't know anyone on a council who doesn't work their guts out to do their best by the people. And then you have these ads saying showers won't work – it's pulling the carpet from under us. How the heck can we hold our heads up and talk with the public, if that is the basis that they've started the conversation?
"So to say that we are feeling hurt is an understatement. I openly say there is a reason why we have invested at the level we have, and that is because on a daily basis we see the consequence of our decisions on the lives of the pensioners and families struggling to make ends meet.
"We look those pensioners in the eye. Will the Government do that?"
Clutha's 18,000 residents have paid upfront for one of the longest water networks in the country, and are loath to see it nationalised or regionalised.
"I wrote out a cheque for the sewerage and the water to my house. It was my money, it came out of my bank account. So I concede that legally, the state may own the water infrastructure – but most people feel they own it because they paid for it."
The decision on whether to proceed with the reforms, or opt out, would be made by the whole council, he said.
"The challenge will be ensuring that all of our communities are heard fairly and decisions are made transparently." – Tracey Collis, Tararua mayor
In the north Wairarapa district of Tararua, too, Mayor Tracey Collis said the council was not yet decided on whether to proceed with the reforms, or opt out. "Both options remain available for Tararua," she said.
"Government, through the collection and analysis of data from local authorities, has informed us that every local authority will be in a better financial position under the proposed reform.
"Through the new service delivery entities representative group, communities will have a voice in decision-making – the challenge will be ensuring that all of our communities are heard fairly and decisions are made transparently."
Whether to go through with the reforms would be a big decision for the Tararua District Council and its communities, Collis said. "We need to understand the data and our position, including the impact on our community and what’s best for our ratepayers."
"Safe drinking water remains our council’s number one priority, and that will continue irrespective of government reform." – Sandra Hazlehurst, Hastings mayor
But in Hastings, where the country's water reforms all began, the mayor expressed her support for the reforms.
Havelock North residents were struck down by a campylobacteriosis outbreak in the Hastings town water supply in 2016. It highlighted small councils' lack of expertise and scale to manage complex water infrastructure.
More than 5500 of the town’s 14,000 residents were estimated to have become ill from drinking the infected town water; some 45 were subsequently hospitalised, an official report found, and four died. That was the genesis of the changes that are being announced this week, five years on.
Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said it was "really important" that communities had a voice in the big new entities. "We have invested $82 million in our safe drinking water upgrades alone in recent years, and have planned for future investment in three waters infrastructure," she said.
"The indication is that Government is expecting to release further information in coming weeks, including what might be occurring in terms of the opt in/opt out process. Our council needs to take time to work through the significant amount of information that has been released, in order to understand nuances and provide feedback to government."
Hawke's Bay councils have been divided over the merits of the reforms and whether they will opt out; Hazlehurst said she was looking forward to meeting with regional leaders to discuss what the announcements meant for the region.
"Safe drinking water remains our council’s number one priority, and that will continue irrespective of government reform," she emphasised. "We look forward to working with the government as the Three Waters reform work progresses."
