Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Well clean water is also vital to human health and I'd like to talk about the Government's three waters proposals. So the Green Party strongly supports the Government's commitment to improving the delivery of three waters services across the country. We recognise that good services for drinking water for waste water and for stormwater are provided in some areas but not consistently around Aotearoa. We recognise that there are issues around affordability and there are infrastructure gaps which require significant investment.We strongly supported improving the standards of drinking-water supply and waste-water treatment. We know that we need to prevent leakage from the drinking-water supply network but also note that the volume that agriculture consumes for irrigation our dairy farms use the equivalent of what 60 million consumers would use.The Greens supported the new Water Services Act which establishes the new regulatory regime overseen by Taumata Arowai to ensure that all New Zealanders have access to clean healthy drinking water and the commitments in that legislation to supplying safe healthy drinking water. We recognise that that legislation would see more investment in three waters services particularly drinking water and a much stronger regulatory and enforcement regime.But we do have some concerns over the proposals to transfer service delivery infrastructure and all those functions and responsibilities to these super-regional entities by July 2024. One of the key risks is around stormwater in urban areas and if that becomes disconnected from land-use planning subdivision and land-use development in new housing because it is that development that strongly influences stormwater the pattern of use and the areas of hard surfaces—whether they be roofs or roads—and councils are increasingly recognising that how they deal with stormwater has potentially significant co-benefits for the community in providing areas for recreation and habitat.In South-West Christchurch in Halswell the Christchurch City Council has put a number of stormwater retention basins which before they were even functioning properly people were walking around. They've really helped to smooth flood flows and prevent flooding in areas of Christchurch like Heathcote where that was traditionally a problem.Another concern is the whole scale pace and timing of the change in three waters which is occurring before we have seen major progress with the review of local government. Because three waters functions are a major part of councils' functions and the transfer of those to these four entities will have a major impact on the functioning of councils. But one of the key issues is the whole concern around ownership accountability and governance mechanisms. So we've got a very complicated multi-layered approach to governance that is proposed with quite a limited ability for local communities and their councils to influence or direct the new super-regional entities. There's no direct link to them.We certainly support stronger mana whenua involvement but the notion of having a regional representative group which appoints a selection panel which then appoints a competency-based board is too disconnected from councils and communities.So we've also got a major concern around the Government proposing that it be mandatory. It's been proposed as a voluntary initiative but Cabinet has provided the mandatory option as a fall-back position and despite repeated questions to the Minister in the House there has been a failure to rule out that this could be mandatory.The Government really needs to engage with councils and the concerns and alternative governance and accountability proposals that they have put forward in the eight weeks to 1 October. It's not just about refining what Government has proposed but taking on board those concerns so that we get a real partnership between central and local government. That requires properly assessing those alternative service delivery and governance options.We suggest that there could be a much stronger and closer look at the council-controlled organisation model as has been used in Watercare which is delivering services efficiently with a competency-based board and has a much more direct council stake in ownership.The assumption is that the changes will deliver 45 percent or more efficiencies compared to the status quo. We acknowledge that that argument was used with the move to Auckland as a unitary authority but we've yet to see robust data showing that those efficiencies were achieved and we think they can often be overstated so we encourage the Government to engage.