Luxton CameronCAMERON LUXTON (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. So I guess I am not sure if I'm old enough to make this speech according to the last member Julie Anne Genter. But look the repeal of three waters is not just a relief to many New Zealanders it's symbolic of the broader change in direction away from centralised instincts of Labour and back towards empowering local communities.The claim that the Labour Government was trying to sell to New Zealanders was that a larger water entity would be more efficient. There was no requirement for councils to reduce rates reflecting the fact that they will no longer be supplying total water services. Not only did some local governments take their eye off the ball when it comes to services and replacement of their pipes now many ratepayers in towns and cities must contend with the cost that their core infrastructure is now going to impose upon them after falling behind when supplying and servicing critical infrastructure should be the first job of council.I would like to acknowledge Minister Brown's statement that water infrastructure is the responsibility of local government and this Government will create the environment to enable them to do just that. We all know the status quo isn't up to scratch but Labour's bureaucratic co-governed regime was never the answer. Three waters would have been great for middle-managers but a disaster for water users with layers and layers of bureaucracy separating decision makers from the people.The ACT-National coalition agreement delivered stopwork notices to the three waters work stream. We've also committed the Government to instituting long-term city- and regional- infrastructure deals empowering local authorities to use public-private partnerships and tolling and other such mechanisms to fund infrastructure and to look at their pipes.I would also say to the previous member's comment New Zealand actually has one of the OECD's most centralised tax systems. But this Government will introduce fiscal incentives for councils to enable more housing including looking at sharing with councils a proportion of GST collected on new residential builds to help fund infrastructure like pipes and encourage councils to get more houses built.Now I also reflect on the Minister of Local Government's answers in question time today. There was an interesting one from the Hon McAnulty which in the end exposed the $1.2 billion already spent on three waters.Hon Tama Potaka: How much?CAMERON LUXTON: I believe it was $1.2 was it?Hon Members: Yep.CAMERON LUXTON: Outrageous right?Hon Tama Potaka: It was $1.2 billion.CAMERON LUXTON: It was $1.2 billion—sorry $1.2 billion Minister Potaka thank you for that. But I've got to say I was heartened when it was followed by a question from Katie Nimon which then allowed the Minister to talk about how we will be restoring local government ownership and we will be removing this divisive and overly bureaucratic mega - co-governed bureaucracy. The Minister also spoke about two further bills coming and I'm looking forward to working with the Minister and the associate—was he under-secretary or? I'm still new learning all these roles but Mr Simon Court who's doing great work in this area.Katie Nimon: Getting the job done.CAMERON LUXTON: Now—yeah get the job done that's right—I'd also like to just relate a story from my experience with water infrastructure. So I live in Tauranga—we have metered water-supply. Now we've heard a bit about what metered water-supply can do when identifying leaks and making sure the people that are actually using water are paying for it. A few months ago I had a leak at the front of my property and going and inspecting it I realised that the leak was coming from the other side of the toby. So this is not me paying for the water because it's not going through the meter and spinning so I'm not paying. I call the council and I say There's a water leak." They go "Which side of the toby is it?" I go "Oh it's on your side." They go "All right we'll get there and fix it straight away."—because they know that these costs are going to load up on the collective ratepayer base who will have to pay for it. Whereas once it's on the other side of the toby the incentive would be on the property owner to fix it. This is the sort of thing that means that a place like Tauranga doesn't have leaks running down the street and it's somewhere that is working well with its water infrastructure.I'd also like to talk about people who don't rely on a reticulated water scheme. We heard again: a "right to water". Now I agree that every human should have a right to water but that doesn't give you a right to infrastructure. If you were living somewhere where it is too unaffordable for a local government to get pipes to you might have to rely on rainwater. Now I do not think that we should be stopping anybody being able to gather water how they choose; get it out of the ground with a consent and also tap into town supply if that's what's needed. But this centralising of Government provisions of water cannot stand and I'm glad that we're repealing this bill. I commend this bill to the House."