A Plan to Divide Us

The announcement that the Government will mandate Three Waters reform, was summed up by the headline in the Wairarapa Times-Age, “A deceitful, lying pack of bastards.” That was a direct quote from Masterton Councillor Tania Nixon, and it is the same sentiment that I hear on the street. It is concerning that many people are also worried about what they see as the Government’s separatist plan, which would divide New Zealand rather than bring us together.

We are one people, made up of many different ethnicities, with European making up 70%, Maori 16.5%, Asian 15% and Pasifika 8%, with of course many of us being able to trace our heritage to more than one of those groups. We should insist on equality, not equity. The former is blind and fair, and the latter is dangerous ground where the definition is in the eye of the beholder. If we go down that track, it will not end well.

We are conflating a separatist agenda with Three Waters reform, and that should be reason enough to abandon the planned reforms altogether. Still, the Government is determined to push this through, and they have the numbers to do it. So what is wrong with the reforms?

To put it bluntly, this is an asset grab that will remove water assets from your elected council and bundle them into one of four new entities with virtually no accountability.

These new entities will not be local or accessible; they will cover many council boundaries over hundreds of kilometres. For any single water entity which might encompass twenty councils, there will only be six councillors (as well as six iwi representatives) in the “representative group” at the bottom of the pecking order. That group then selects an independent panel, which chooses a board, which appoints the entity management.

The model is fundamentally flawed, with the claims of economies of scale dubious at best, as the assets, for the most part, cannot be aggregated in that way. The Minister also said there would not be any job losses and there would be 6,000 to 9,000 new jobs. More jobs mean more costs. The planned reforms reinforce suspicions that the heavy iwi representation in the governance arrangements has some other purpose. I do not like where this is going, and I will stand against it.