Three Waters Reform: Waipa joins councils in campaign to pause reforms

Waipā District Council is joining a growing number of councils across the country coming together to campaign Central Government to pause and reconsider the mandatory Three Waters Reform.

Following a report and an approved recommendation at Council’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee meeting today, Mayor Jim Mylchreest will be funding the Council’s $15,000 contribution in the campaign from the Mayoral Discretionary Fund.

Mylchreest said so far 17 councils had been confirmed as moving forward in the campaign group, being led by Timaru District Council, with more expected to join in coming weeks.

The purpose of the campaign is to convince Central Government to alter its intention to proceed with legislation that will compel councils to transfer their three waters assets into the ownership and/or operational control of another legal entity without the agreement of an affected council to that transfer.

Campaign partners will engage with their communities and the Government to reach an agreement on a reform package that can appropriately meet all parties’ objectives.

“The campaign is to convince the Government to reconsider its current position and find a more appropriate option to the outcomes we want for our Council, and for our community,” Mayor Mylchreest said.

“This gives us a chance to get out in the public and state the facts as we see them.”

“I believe there needs to be improvements to drinking water and wastewater discharge, but we need to identify where the problems are and fix those problems rather than a one-size-fits-all fix across the country,” he said.

“We are elected to look after the best interests of our ratepayers ... if I thought we were going to get a more effective and efficient result from these reforms, I would support it, but I don’t believe this is the case.”

Councillor Lou Brown said the mandatory reforms had created angst with ratepayers and the wider community and he wanted it to be known the Council was taking action.