The Latest Breaking News from Three Waters

Other small communities should get the same government-funded 'special treatment' as the Chathams, say opposition MPs. Jonathan Milne reports.

The Government created 10 water corporations to give local communities more control, but new changes to the Three Waters reform package ensure they will share the same employment contracts, the same IT systems, and more. Jonathan Milne reports from the Local Government NZ conference in Christchurch.

Jacinda Ardern's water infrastructure reforms are the latest policy to be axed by her successor as New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins.

Five key charts from the state-of-our-waters report put the case for Three Waters reform. There are still some pretty grim numbers, but there are welcome signs the reforms are already have are starting to make a difference.

Central North Island councils hated the idea of a Te Tiriti-founded co-governance model when it was mooted for the Waikato River. They saw a power-grab by Māori – even an asset grab. In practice, it wasn’t that at all.

National and Labour's solutions to the undisputed problem of Three Waters aren't that different, writes Jonathan Milne. The difference is not over how the water infrastructure is managed, but simply who does it.

There's some financial sense in councils retaining control of stormwater assets, which are harder to carve off.

Should NZ rely on its own water infrastructure model? Should we give future generations a local pūkeko or an imported partridge? Credit agencies are watching like hawks.

There were nearly 300 water engineer positions advertised on recruitment website Seek last month. The high demand for these specialist engineers bodes ill for the government’s Three Waters reform, which will rely heavily on experts the country currently doesn’t have in the required numbers.