9. Question No. 9—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 9—Prime Minister9. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and policies?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes.David Seymour: Does she stand by her statement at Waitangi in 2019 that Equality is our foundation" and if so does she believe that our constitutional foundation should be equal political rights for all New Zealanders?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: In answer to the first part of the question yes.David Seymour: Does she stand by her Government's policy of co-governance for three waters infrastructure and if so can she explain how being appointed based on ancestry makes people better at managing infrastructure than if they are elected by the users of the service?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: There are a number of areas where of course we work alongside Māori on the basis of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. If the member wishes to distil down his views in Te Tiriti into the way that he just described that's a matter for him. I am happy though to respond to the general question around how we've come to the governance arrangements we have for three waters. This is an issue that we are tackling as a Government not because it was top on anyone's agenda in this House but because we have to face the brutal fact that in New Zealand thousands of New Zealanders get sick from their drinking water every single year—the fact that just last week when I visited Tokomaru Bay there are people there who had no access to water because of a severe weather event. They're now on a boil notice. That happens for some New Zealanders every day of the week. It is not acceptable so we need change. In making that change and developing entities across the country that will have the role of maintaining public ownership of our critical water assets but ensuring that we have regional representation we've put forward a proposal that that regional representation consist of mana whenua as happens in local government every day alongside local authority representatives. I would point out to the member that recently when we went to a group of local government representatives to ask them for their views on those arrangements they came back in support of the regional representative group structure we had proposed.David Seymour: Point of order. It was actually a very simple question about how the composition of governance bodies for three waters would improve the performance and outcomes of infrastructure management. Now the Minister described a whole lot of features of the policy but she never came close to addressing that actual question.SPEAKER: I think she did address the question.David Seymour: Does the Prime Minister stand by her Government's policy of having Ngāi Tahu appoint two councillors to Environment Canterbury alongside democratically elected councillors and if so can she explain how that policy will deliver better air and water quality for the people of Canterbury?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If the member wishes to speak to the arrangements that actually exist across the board in many areas of local government including currently on some of the water issues down south or even maunga management up north the member takes issue with that. He may wish to reflect on his role in the time that National was in Government where many of those arrangements were established. What I would be interested in is actually if the member could articulate what it is that has been generated by those groups and those arrangements that the member finds particularly problematic; what is it about local government actually acknowledging that to date we haven't had fair representation of Māori in local government; and what it is about the changes that have come into place that the member finds particularly problematic? Let's discuss the issue rather than what I'm worried about is just blatant politicisation. David Seymour: Does she agree with this statement: "All political authority comes from the people by democratic means including universal suffrage regular and free elections with a secret ballot." and if so how is that consistent with more and more governance roles being appointed along ethnic lines instead of elected?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course I support the longstanding principles of democracy in this nation but the idea that that cannot sit alongside Te Tiriti o Waitangi I take issue with that. We are more sophisticated than that surely than to take such a simplistic view.David Seymour: Does she see any distinction between co-governance arrangements for specific taonga returned through Treaty settlements such as the arrangements for Auckland's maunga on the one hand and co-governance of entities that did not exist in 1840 such as public healthcare systems and three waters infrastructure on the other or is co-governance now a wholesale policy regardless of that distinction?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Perhaps we should come at it from a different angle for the member. We have not since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi had the Māori Health Authority. Yet what we have had is a national health system that has generated an outcome where Māori die younger than other New Zealanders and where Māori have worse health outcomes for instance in cancer care and treatment for every cancer there is other than melanoma. It is not right in this country that because you're Māori you are often sicker and you have poorer treatment in our health system. So we are responding to that yes with an entity that didn't exist before because this is a problem that has existed because we have not confronted it as we should."