Borrows Chester: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Borrows Chester: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8052. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I appreciate the opportunity to address a couple of remarks in respect of the last two speakers. I guess in response to comments made by the Hon Tariana Turia I would like to clarify the situation around discussions and consultation with iwi. It is accepted that the consultation process with iwi was incumbent on the South Taranaki District Council and the council and the company accept that that consultation did not happen in the way it would if the process started now. So the process of this bill the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill was paused at the request of iwi and at the request of the Maori Party in order for me to go and have a further discussion with them to explain the situation of what the local people in the area of the Cold Creek catchment wanted to achieve. 
It is important to note too that when we talk about a company and a private company here we are talking about a local group of farmers who in the mid to late 1980s built a water scheme under a Government-funded scheme that was operating at that time. We are talking about a cooperative of local people. They are consumers—most of them are farmers; some of them are not—who draw from this scheme. There is not some other business entity that can be pictured in another way. 
I convened a meeting with the iwi concerned and Ngati Ruanui who are outside the rohe—this does not fall within their rohe—and we had a discussion at Te Kuri where all matters were addressed. Albeit the meeting was held in good humour in good faith and in everyone’s best interests we got to the end of it and there had not been an agreement made.  
The point that iwi made was this: they have tino rangatiratanga and they with their partners the Crown should have jurisdiction over the allocation of water which is at a different level from where this is. Their argument is that they should be in the room with the Taranaki Regional Council which is representing the Crown deciding on water allocation. Their concern around the Cold Creek scheme is that it is currently on paper an asset owned by the South Taranaki District Council or by the Crown by virtue of the South Taranaki District Council and so there should have been consultation in respect of that.  
They did accept that this is about infrastructure—about pipes concrete and pumps. It is not about water because the allocation of water is not under the jurisdiction of Cold Creek Community Water Supply. In actual fact that comes under the jurisdiction of the Taranaki Regional Council.  
So there is a little bit of divergence there between the facts as have been related by the Hon Tariana Turia and those from someone who was sitting in the room as it happened in reality. She made a very polite allegation of institutional racism. I think to be fair it was probably institutional ignorance bearing in mind that this procedure started back in the late 1990s. We all know as individuals and collectively a heck of a lot more now about the aspirations of Maori views of the Treaty of Waitangi and how that impacts on our day-to-day business as agents of the Crown than we did then.  
And as I said earlier if this process had been starting now there would have been a heck of a lot more consultation I am sure. It is difficult then to either go back and undermine the complete process or stop the whole process and do it again from the start. So positions have been drawn and parties have been listened to—albeit we ended up at a divergent place.  
I would now like to address comments made by the Hon Damien O’Connor in respect of the history of the scheme. He outlined that the farmers built the scheme with their contribution on a dollar for dollar subsidy from the State via central government not local government. It was taxpayers as opposed to ratepayers who were subsidising this scheme. The criteria for gaining approval for the scheme was that production had to be enhanced. It has and it has been enhanced many times over. As a result of that the South Taranaki District Council—and its previous iterations as Egmont Plains and Waimate Plains and the rest of it—has received a substantial increase in rate take as have the citizens of New Zealand who have received a substantial increase in tax take as a result of the building of that scheme. 
I do want to make the point again though that this is about pipes and concrete. It is about infrastructure; it is not about stream beds or creek beds and it is not about water. It is about a water supply conduit. 
Another point that the honourable member made was that people can take water for granted. I can assure him that the farmers who took out huge loans to make their contribution to the construction of this water scheme in the first place—bearing in mind that mid-1980s was a time when people were paying huge interest rates of about 18 percent a year and punitive rates for late payment etc. of well over 20 percent—were not taking their contribution to this lightly. Having gone through the pain of that and then administering this scheme for about 15 years now—running the whole scheme with absolutely no cost to the ratepayer or to the local council—those farmers and the people who are drawing from this scheme do not take their ability to obtain this water cheaply or lightly or take it for granted in any way whatsoever. 
The reason why this scheme falls under the legislation that was introduced by the Labour Party which would normally prevent it from being vested in the people who built it the local community—in fact the lowest-level community ownership you could possibly have—is the quality of the water; it is potable water. There is an adjacent scheme at Awanui that is not potable water and there was absolutely no difficulty in floating that off to the people who had done exactly what the Cold Creek people had done in building their own scheme. It is important to make that particularly clear. 
I will just address the point made by the Hon Damien O’Connor in respect of security of supply to the people of Opunake. That was previously a concern and is not a concern now. The reason for that is that Opunake’s water scheme has been upgraded. It became a problem prior to that upgrading because when there was high rainfall on the mountain the Opunake water supply was tainted and they needed to draw water off in another supply. The people from Cold Creek allowed for a branch to be taken off their line for a clean water supply to the people of Opunake. That is not required any more but if it was required then this bill and the agreement between Cold Creek’s water company and the South Taranaki District Council was that they will always make that water available. How that is done is that there is about a 2-metre gap between the two schemes and a pipe fit for purpose is bolted between the two schemes and the water supply is flowed through to Opunake in that way.  
The members of the scheme have said to the council that if it wanted to build reservoirs in Opunake to draw water off the scheme—say at night when it is not being used for stock and not being used for domestic use—then providing it could get a water right from the Taranaki Regional Council to do that the farmers were only too happy for that to be done. There is a question then about whether the capacity to take to that level was available but in the end the council has decided that the assurances it has been given in this bill and the assurances it has been given from the members are that it does not need to do that and it is happy with the bill as it is.  
This bill is promoted by the South Taranaki District Council. I anticipate the speech to be given by Andrew Little shortly who is not the local member or even a local member; I will just reassure the Hon Damien O’Connor of that. He will get up and talk about a meeting we had with the South Taranaki District Council that was reported back to him—because he was not present—as bullying on behalf of the honourable member Shane Ardern and me also an honourable member. I can tell him and reassure those listening or anybody interested that I was in the room and that situation did not occur. There was the situation where a member of the Labour Party—and a staunch supporter of the Labour Party locally who happens to be a member of the council—was not happy with some of the words that were said. But having known Mr Ballantyne for many many years I can assure Mr Little that he was never bullied. Thank you.