10. Question No. 10—Local GovernmentNICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Local GovernmentQuestion No. 10—Local Government10. NICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Local Government: Will councils be informed of the proportion of ownership and control they would have of the water entities that would be established by the Three Waters reforms; if not why not?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Minister of Local Government: The Government has been engaging with local government on the three waters proposals for some considerable time and also on the governance arrangements as part of that and we will continue to do so. The Government's proposal is that local authorities are the owners of the entities on behalf of their communities. This proposal also includes legislative safeguards to ensure that these entities stay in public ownership.Nicola Willis: How much of the proposed entity A would Auckland Council own and therefore Auckland ratepayers have control over?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Minister I don't have the specific percentages in front of me but what I can say is that local authorities will be the owners collectively on behalf of their communities. It is also very important for us on this side of the House to make sure we protect the public ownership of these entities lest the National Party ever get in Government and try and hock them off.Nicola Willis: How would ratepayers have direct influence over the water entities in the way they do now over their elected councils when in a typical entity up to 20 councils would be represented by just six seats on a regional representative group?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Minister the member has answered her own question that the regional representative group will cover the councils. It will also cover mana whenua in the area. The important thing for the member to consider here is whether or not she thinks that the way water assets in New Zealand have been managed over previous decades is adequate and I think the member of all people would realise that water assets in New Zealand have not been well managed. The status quo is not working. If we stick to the status quo it will cost thousands of dollars on ratepayers and the member just might want to think about the good people of Wellington who want their water to be better than it is now.Brooke van Velden: Were councils informed about the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Bill before it was announced and if not did the National Party housing spokesperson lobby her to ensure they were informed?SPEAKER: I think that might be described as a nice try but not a proper supplementary.David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. If a question is asked about the practice of the Government informing local government how is it not a valid question to put that in context and ask what the practice of informing local government normally is? How is that not a valid question?SPEAKER: If the question was about the relationship generally between the Government and local government then it is possible that that supplementary could have been worked in. This question was about water.Nicola Willis: Will the Minister as rumoured announce plans this week to legislate to require all local authorities to give up their water assets for a nationwide all-in model" as preferred by her Government?Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. Is rumour now adequate authentication of material for the purposes of supplementary questions?SPEAKER: If I thought it was necessary for the substance of the question then the answer would have been no. But actually it was a superfluous unnecessary addition that didn't actually affect the sense of the question and therefore I chose not to be officious and rule it out. There's a new liberal reasonable me.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Minister the Government continues to work with local government around making sure that we involve as many councils as possible as we can in this proposal and when it comes to rumours if I believed all of the rumours that I've heard around Wellington the member would already be the leader of the National Party.Hon Eugenie Sage: Is the Government considering having more than four entities to provide better community-of-interest representation?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Minister we have put out our proposal for the four entities. We believe that that is the best aggregation of those assets to provide New Zealanders with the kind of water infrastructure that they need and deserve.Hon James Shaw: Given the National Party's concern about the Government seizing the assets of local government would the Government consider inviting the National Party to help to create a supermajority vote to ensure that that legislation can't be overturned and that those assets do actually stay in the hands of local government?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Minister I am very confident that the legislative proposals that we have ensure that public ownership is guaranteed. I would invite the National Party to vote for that and reject their decades-long attachment to asset sales."