Have you seen what Chris Hipkins is doing to Three Waters?

Not a lot from the looks of things! Apart from increasing the number of entities and renaming it “Affordable Water Reforms”.

Incredible.

As I said in my last email, our Prime Minister is reiterating his contempt for the vast numbers of New Zealanders who object to Three Waters.

He must think we are all fools if he thinks that a quick rebrand is going to appease us. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

Crucially, for those of us who champion democracy and value equal rights, co-governance remains totally embedded in the reforms. Nothing has changed, Geoffrey. 

Different name, same divisive and regressive policies. 

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said in a press release today:

“Every district council in the country will have a say and representation over their local water services entities through regional representative groups, forming a partnership between council representatives and iwi/Māori that will provide strategic oversight and direction to the entities.”

And while he goes on to say they will “continue to sit below the governance board” we already know what that means in practice. It means 50% of the decision making voices will be unelected and unaccountable to a democratic process.

This means that we can expect that the hypocritical accusations of racism directed at opponents of the reforms will continue and our work is well and truly cut out for us because this Government is doubling down.

We aren’t afraid to stand up for what is right though. We all have that hill we are willing to die on and for me it is defending a democratic New Zealand that values the rights of each person equally.

I’ll be in touch soon with our next steps in our fight against racism (which seems to get bigger and bigger each week) and in the next phase of the battle with co-governance.

The Fight Against Racism fund is still open for donations and every dollar allows us to get our messages in front of more Kiwis. 

There’s plenty of time until October and I hope we can count on your continued support in the fight.

Casey Costello, Trustee, Hobson’s Pledge

P.S. And, remember if you hear about some “Affordable Water Reforms” they’re just talking about Three Waters!

By Bob Edlin:-

Within 15 minutes of the Government emailing its overhauled water-service reforms to Point of Order, another email arrived, this time from National’s local government spokesman, Simon Watts.  Hard on the heels of that came emails from the Act Party and the Taxpayers’ Union.

The Opposition parties and the Taxpayers’ Union, you won’t be surprised to learn, expressed their objections to the Government’s revised plans (but they won’t have winkled out all the flaws after a quick read of what was announced).

We have yet to hear from the Māori Party.  Perhaps its staffers are searching for mentions of “co-governance” in the Government’s press statement. They won’t find it because it’s not there, but McAnulty does say 10 new regionally owned and led public water entities will be established, each of them run by a professional board, with members appointed on competency and skill.

Strategic oversight and direction will be provided by local representative groups“… with every local council in the country, as well as mana whenua, getting a seat at the table”.

Just one seat each?  Or many seats?

Read more of this post: “Co-governance isn’t mentioned in latest Three Waters statement – but that doesn’t mean it has been flushed down the Beehive drain”