Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Minister last night when we were debating the bill you described the ownership of the three waters entities organisations—you stated that councils will continue to own the assets Minister. We got on to that topic because my question was how will Te Mana o te Wai statements be given effect to and how will they affect the ability of these three waters entities to actually deliver fresh water to communities and to allow people who grow things in New Zealand who manufacture things to know that they can get access to the allocation of water that they need to? And Minister in response to some of my questions you stated that councils will continue to own the assets that Māori are happy with that—I'm assuming you're referring to people who have Māori ancestry—and you went on to clarify that iwi are happy for councils to own assets and to have a shareholder.Now what I want to understand is if councils continue to own these assets will they be able to borrow against them? Because if I owned an asset or if I was a business owner or I had a piece of infrastructure—whether that was a power station or a factory that was an asset my business owned—I would be able to go to the bank and say I want to borrow some money to build my next factory or my next power station and use the revenues from my current factory or the collateral that my asset offered." So Minister will councils be able to borrow money against the assets that you stated they will continue to own—that's question one. Question two: will councils be able to generate revenue from these three waters assets? Because you've stated that they continue to own them. So will councils be able to generate revenue from these assets? Question three Minister: will councils be able to choose how these assets are used? Because if they are in fact owners will they be able to have a say in how the three waters assets are used—whether it's drinking water or whether it's in the provision of wastewater services and connections say to enable housing development or to up-zone and densify existing cities? Will councils be able to choose how the assets that these three water services entities are meant to have collated together—if they own them will they be able to say how they're used or will they lose the right to say that? Because so many of the submitters who came to select committee Minister said that based on the legislation that was proposed they wouldn't have control over their assets and they wouldn't be able to say how they were used how water is allocated. In fact the loss of control and the centralisation of the management of these water assets in one of the new water service entities meant that communities would no longer feel that they had an ability to influence how those assets were used. In many cases councils around New Zealand have invested in their water infrastructure and have put aside money. We heard from the Mayor of Ōpōtiki District Council who told us that they have not only upgraded their waste-water and water treatment assets but they've put aside $10 million in cash to fund the next round of upgrades. Minister the thought that that asset from Ōpōtiki District Council and their cash would be hoovered up by one of these water service entities and that they would lose control over it was one of the most powerful motivating factors in opposition to this bill from communities up and down this country that led to 88000 submissions arriving at the Finance and Expenditure Committee for us to consider. So Minister three questions. Will councils if they own these assets be able to borrow against them? Will they be able to generate and take a share of the revenues that these assets generate? And will they be able to choose how the assets that you state they control and the services that arise from those assets are allocated? Minister those three questions—an answer for those please."