Edmonds BarbaraBARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to take a call on the Water Services Entities Bill. There are many times in this House where one prepares a speech and this is one of the times where I didn't prepare a speech. It is easy for me to be able to sit at my desk write a 10-minute speech have a good read of it and basically push out the slogans that we've heard time and time and time again in this House in relation to this bill. But I'm not going to be speaking about the slogans that are being sent from across the other side of the House. Instead I'm going to stand here and go back to why we need this bill. I was speaking to the chairman of our local iwi who was basically talking about how the nannies used to be able to go down to our local harbour used to be able to pick pipis used to be able to fish used to be able to swim in those waters. I talk a lot within my local community about only 500 metres from my home a local beach which has regular discharge of sewage—regular discharge of sewage. That CEO and chairman of that iwi sent me a text and said to me to go hard in relation to this bill. He said Just remember: it's not just about assets; it's about people." And that's exactly what this bill is about—it's about providing our children and our children's children an ability to go down to their local harbour to pick pipis from the harbour to fish in it and to be able to swim. The member from the opposite side of the House Simon Watts represents the North Shore the area that I was brought up in. You can't even go down to the local beach to swim in those beaches. And what do you say is the solution to your local community in Takapuna? What is the solution? Went through one solution from the communities for local democracy went through another solution from another local council went through a solution from the Auckland City Council and a couple of other mayors. Talked about a solution on the other side of the House but there was still no alternative from the other side of the House. There was nothing in that speech that actually committed to what they were going to do other than to repeal a bill which leaves them with absolutely nothing.Now I want to go to the people. The health of our people is so important. So Mr Speaker if you'll indulge me I want to quote a really important article from the New Zealand Medical Journal that was released last week. It says "In 2016 drinking water contaminated with animal faeces made much of an entire town sick … with 58 hospitalisations and four deaths costing an estimated NZ$21 million." The outbreak was an outcome of systematic flaws in Aotearoa New Zealand's regulatory system for drinking water which were highlighted in the ensuing Government inquiry. Now these medical professionals conclude this very detailed New Zealand Medical Journal article by saying that "Good quality drinking water that is free of hazardous contaminants is a fundamental human right and a key element of the Sustainable Development Goals. … Water contamination in New Zealand has had severe consequences for human health and is an ongoing public health threat. … Consequences are borne disproportionately by smaller and the most deprived communities with Māori disproportionately comprising the latter. The current regulatory arrangements for water services are inadequate are economically unsustainable and are inefficient. The amalgamation proposed in the Water Services Entities Bill provides an opportunity to resolve previous systemic flaws outlined in the Government Inquiry into Havelock North and to future proof the country's Three Waters. Most importantly the proposed new legislation is likely to more robustly and efficiently improve the protection of public health and uphold the right to clean safe water."The other side of the House may not agree with those medical experts but councils across the country absolutely agree there is a problem that needs to be solved. We have a solution on this side of the House that is in the bill which provides for new entities that are still owned by the taxpayers of New Zealand—still owned by the taxpayers of New Zealand with some safeguards in there to ensure that if for any reason these entities decide to sell them overseas there are strong safeguards in that bill. They're the same safeguards that apply today to local government assets. Anybody who picks up that bill and actually reads it—takes the time to go through it clause by clause as the Finance and Expenditure Committee members from the Labour Party and the Green Party did—will understand why you have to support this bill. Because again the bottom line is the health of the people of our country. We cannot kick this problem down to future generations. We cannot let our children have to have higher rates as a result of doing nothing.We heard a number of submitters and yes a number of them were not in agreement with the bill in the way that it was structured. However the experts said that if we don't do anything about this the increases in rates were disproportionate. It was already disproportionate in how much people were paying in rates for the water services that we were receiving. But what was going to happen was a $185 billion problem and if you kick that problem down the road who is going to pay for it? Again it is our future generations.Members across the House might want to be able to interject and provide different options to that—take a speech take your time but actually maybe use your speeches for what the solution is that you'd actually provide other than repealing this bill. Provide the solution but in the meantime this is a Government that is making hard decisions for the future of our children and our children's children. We want our children to be able to go down to the local harbour to pick pipis and fish. We want them to be able to walk along the beach and have a swim in the sea. We want them to be able to turn on the tap water and be able to drink from it. Too many boil notices and too many sewage discharges—unaffordable. That is basically what this bill is trying to address. I want to leave the House with one last quote from a submitter who came to Hawke's Bay who actually experienced the Hawke's Bay contamination. She said "The Three Waters' reform is looking to do the right thing for communities. It's looking at health and science and putting it in the hands of experts. It's taking it out of the hands of the politicians. We have a problem New Zealand and this bill is going to solve it.""