Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Just when you thought the saga of this Government's three waters reform programme had come to an end this Government has slipped one more bill through at the last minute. Blink because if you missed it you are not alone. But in fact the last bill passed last Thursday and members of the public only have seven more days in order to submit and provide feedback on that. Labour's three waters back-down bill" is the legislative equivalent of building a plane as you're flying it and at the 11th hour they've added new funding entities more entities and more bureaucracy.Kieran McAnulty wants us to believe that he has made fundamental changes to this reform those introduced by Nanaia Mahuta are long gone and that affordable water reforms have nailed it. At the same time he tells this House that this bill is simple and that the changes are so minor that the select committee process isn't even necessary and Kiwis only need 12 days to consider and give feedback on this bill and that is sufficient. Labour has given this Parliament a masterclass on how to fail and not sell and not deliver policy. Years from now people will reflect on the Labour Government's three waters reform programme and acknowledge this as the point at which this Labour Government truly lost the New Zealand public.Remember that these reforms—the Government went out to councils and told them it was optional. Of course we found out eventually that this was not the case. Cabinet papers demonstrated clearly this was an asset grab by force long before councils were told. Then there was a bill with over 80000 submissions from the public overwhelmingly opposed to these changes. But that wasn't enough. They then decided "How about we entrench it?" They got caught red-handed trying to entrench parts of the bill that couldn't be changed later on. Then they had the guts to tell the New Zealand public "Nothing to see here. Just one big mistake." We all make mistakes we all forget to take out the rubbish or maybe we leave something in the oven for a bit too long but how many of us can say we accidentally broke the New Zealand constitution? Well just the ones over there.That is bad enough but now we hear that the cost of this reform is around $100 million a year; $25 million a quarter $2 million a week $280000 per day—that's pretty bad. And you might think "What are they spending all this money on?" Well $15000 to write a job description for an entity that no longer exists as a result of this legislation because now it's 10 entities not four. Consultants filling jobs like executive assistants for three times the rate that the average public servant gets for the same role or $3 million on advertising campaigns that are blatantly saying that green slime is coming out of the taps and poor quality is the fault of local government.This Government has no legs to stand on in regards to three waters and no legs to stand on in regards to fiscal management. Thankfully there are only 107 days to go before the election and this Government is out of here. Only National has a plan in regards to dealing with and putting in place comprehensive reforms for three waters. Within our first 100 days we will repeal this three waters legislation that is on the Table. The assets will be returned to our local communities where they belong and where they will stay under a National Government.Instead we're going to give councils the opportunity to be financial sustainable. Regulation in regards to water quality and economic regulation—this is critical and this is what National will deliver. The message is clear: only a National-led Government led by Christopher Luxon will protect local assets. Only a National Government led by Christopher Luxon will deliver better water services. And only a National-led Government led by Christopher Luxon will repeal three waters."