Russell DeborahHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): I take the points that the member who has just spoken Catherine Wedd made about the need for safe drinking water. What happened in Havelock North was a tragedy. People died because the water that came out of their taps that should have been safe was not. This is a deeply serious problem which we need to solve. We need to ensure that the drinking water in this country is safe. So the question is how to do that. What is the best way to do that? How does each of us up and down the country ensure that each of us up and down the country can turn the tap on get a glass of water and drink it knowing that it is safe?On this side of the House we believe that burden should be shared up and down the country. We believe that all of us need to contribute to that—that all of us need to look after each other. I want to call to the House's mind a submission that was made by one particular district council. I'm not going to name who this district council was because frankly I was appalled by what they said. What they said was We're OK. We've spent the money. We don't care about our neighbours. We don't care about the people one town over. We don't care about the people in that district to the north of us. We're OK. To hell with them." That was the gist of their submission.Now when we looked at that particular district council it turns out that that particular district council comes from a relatively wealthy area with a relatively few urban areas to serve. They were able to charge rates in a way that enabled them to set up their water supplies so that they could do it going forward into the future. But their neighbouring district council was not in such a wealthy area had not been able to rate in a way that enabled them to build up infrastructure was desperately worried about how it could meet the regulations that were to be imposed by that side of the House.Now let's be clear we need the clean safe drinking water. The issue is how to pay for it. And on that side of the House they are saying to some district councils to some areas of the country: "To hell with you—to hell with you. We don't care that you've got to put your rates up. We don't care that your ratepayers can't afford it. To hell with you." That's the essence of the solution that they're proposing over there.We already know that rates are going up dramatically across the country. So my colleague Megan Woods ran us through it: 15.8 percent in Tauranga 17.1 percent on the Kāpiti Coast 18.5 percent in Wellington 14.75 percent in Kaikōura. Rates are going up. And in some areas ratepayers can no longer pay. In the Far North 20 percent of ratepayers have not been able to pay their latest rates instalment. And this Government over there wants to add yet more costs on to them.We had a solution in place. We had a solution in place that meant that all of us cared for each other in this country that meant that all of us shared in the burden of ensuring that everyone had clean drinking water that meant that those of us who live in the urban areas could go to other parts of the country when we're on holiday and turn the tap on and be assured that the quality of the drinking water was as fantastic as it was in our homes. And we were going to share the cost across the country because that's what we do as New Zealanders: we look after each other. We try to ensure that all of us have access to the same standard of living. But not on that side of the House. "To hell with the poors." they said. "To hell with the areas that simply couldn't afford to pay the rates." They are just abandoning them and they have no solution in place. This is an appalling bill."