It is rural councils that are expressing the greatest anger at a $3.5 million ad campaign, coinciding with farmers taking their tractors to the nation's roads in protest at government regulations.
ANALYSIS: Government officials have now apologised for an expensive Three Waters advertising campaign that warned ratepayers of "nasties" in their water – but the Prime Minister says she doesn't believe the ads were intended to arouse fear.
"I refute the idea of scaremongering," she told Newsroom. "We're just talking about the reality of what we're facing."
The Government yesterday announced $2.5b to help councils deliver the water reforms and other infrastructure around jobs and housing. It was an attempt to win over mayors and councils, many of whom have been vocal in their criticism of the big merger of drinking water, wastewater and storm water assets.
Some local leaders quickly noted that most of the money would be coming out of the four new water authorities, though, which are being set up with the councils' own assets. The Government was just giving them back their own money, they argued.
It all comes ahead of a day on which farmers around the country plan to drive their tractors down local high streets in protest at regulations around climate change mitigation, like the proposed levy on petrol and diesel utes.
And the greatest anger at the $3.5m ad campaign's criticism of local water infrastructure also comes from the provinces. Rural mayors say government breached good faith in negotiations, by sending the public a direct message that their small councils were delivering failing infrastructure.
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South Wairarapa Mayor Alex Beijen called the $3.5m ad campaign "propaganda". It was "abysmal," said Grey Mayor Tania Gibson; "outrageous," said Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon; "ill-timed, ill-informed and ill-mannered," said Timaru Mayor Nigel Bowen; "a slap in the face," said Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan.
After Newsroom revealed the ad campaign had been pulled back and redrafted, Local Government NZ president Stuart Crosby confirmed he and his organisation had received a "personal apology" from the Department of Internal Affairs.
But given the circumstances in which the Government is struggling to maintain the confidence of rural NZ, Ardern herself was surprisingly unrepentant. "What was critical for me was that we were working with local Government, so if there were concerns there, my view is that we needed to listen to them," she said. "But there is something in making sure that people, when they care about the Three Waters, know exactly what it means for them."
It was a consistent message from the big delegation of senior government minister who are attending the local government conference in Blenheim, yesterday and today. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the water reforms were about saving people from unsafe water, and he could not see why any council would opt out of that.
And Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who is leading the reforms, acknowledged the ad campaign "might have been cutting edge at the beginning," but the message would now be about finding solutions. She said communities were frustrated by notices stopping them swimming at their local beaches, sewerage pipes busting and being made to boil their drinking water. "What this reform programme is trying to promote is ... safe drinking water and better environmental outcomes."
