Patterson MarkGORE DISTRICT COUNCIL (OTAMA RURAL WATER SUPPLY) BILLThird ReadingMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): I move That the Gore District Council (Otama Rural Water Supply) Bill be now read a third time.It is a great honour to be asked by the local community and the Gore District Council to bring this bill to the House and shepherd it through to this point. That said I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker and local Labour list MP Liz Craig who I know had been involved intricately in bringing this bill to the House as well particularly Hamish. I would also like to commend the Governance and Administration Committee that travelled to Gore to hear I think 14 submissions under the guidance and leadership of chairman Brett Hudson.This bill may not represent New Zealand's nuclear-free moment but it is a really important issue for the local people involved and it's really important for this community—one that contributes so much particularly to the economy of New Zealand with the primary products that come out of that district and of course Southland as a whole that produces I think 14 percent of New Zealand's merchandise exports with just 1.5 percent of the population. Ōtama and the surrounding districts are absolutely a key part of that so when they need the Government and when they need this Parliament to sort their issues out it is only right that we should be there for them.The purpose of this bill is to specify the process for which the Gore District Council transfers the ownership of the Otama Rural Water Supply scheme to Otama Rural Water Ltd. The bill will allow the Gore District Council to override section 130(2) of the Local Government Act 2002 which requires councils to meet their obligations for water supply under this Act. Councils must not divest ownership of water schemes supplying more than 200 households and of course the Otama Rural Water Supply scheme as we've heard in earlier readings supplies 223 households two schools and the local Ngāi Tahu Hokonui Rūnanga marae. In seeking the exemption the Gore council are drawing upon the very clear precedent set by the South Taranaki District Council in regard to passing the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Act of 2013.My own involvement in this matter stems back actually to May of 2017. As an aspiring politician I got a tip-off that this was a local matter that was generating some heat and it might be worth my while travelling the hour from my own home in Lawrence to the Ōtama Hall to get a bit of a sense of what was going on. What greeted me was actually a pretty familiar sight to those of us brought up in rural communities: a packed rural hall with the local councillors and the officials and the local mayor and chief executive lined up the front while some pretty heated discussion and debate was going on from the local householders and landowners. The catalyst really was the fact that the Gore council had been managing the scheme—the Otama Rural Water Supply Committee had been governing it but the council had been running it. The farmers being astute businessman as they were were concerned about escalating costs and were looking to bring private enterprise in and get some pricing.This unlocked what had been a historical ownership dispute. What had previously been assumed by the council was that they had ownership of the scheme because in the wash-up of the Southland County Council in the amalgamations of the 1989 Local Government Act they assumed that legally they owned the scheme. The local farmers though contended that they owned the scheme. It had gone back in fact to the local Otago Federated Farmers branch meeting in around 1969-1970 where local farmer Ian Robertson—and Ian I know you will be watching now. You're 90 years old now I believe—still a very astute observer of politics and someone whose advice I draw on regularly but your influence in this scheme is acknowledged. It was soon local farmers—and there's some very notable local names here and I'm sure Hamish will traverse some as well but Stuart Baird Charlie Kerse Hughie Chittook Les Morrison and of course no mention of the Otama Rural Water Supply scheme is complete without acknowledging the 25 years of chairmanship of Tom Affleck. Of course we all recall Tom being here for the second reading of the speech and the great thrill he got from seeing his work being acknowledged in this House.The scheme itself started in 1972 and the farmers themselves paid for it. They paid with their own money—they were of course in different times before the health and safety regulations of today—and put the original scheme in needing 90 hours of their own labour to be contributed and a small loan from the Southland County Council which when Tom's talking about it he always emphasises the fact that that was paid back in double-quick time. Stage two and three followed soon after and by the time stage three went through in 1976 it was providing stock water and potable water for houses for 73000 hectares and the Government actually put in a one-for-one subsidy in stage three. Isn't it good to see the Provincial Growth Fund back enabling efforts like that to continue in regional New Zealand now?The well itself is by the Pyramid Bridge and the committee itself has governed this particular scheme beautifully over all of that time. They've provided high-quality water with good consistency and quality. They've upgraded the main line in the last 15 years all the while running healthy surpluses and capital and depreciation accounted for.So the upshot of the meeting was that there was a referendum that was called for by the council and 76 percent of the respondents which was actually 75 percent of the people that were eligible voted in favour of the committee taking ownership of the water and forming a company for which that could be worked under. Of course the backdrop of this and where the contention probably could've been is it does go against the direction of public policy and we do know that the Havelock water crisis of 2015 the response to that and the work that Minister Mahuta is doing in this field with the Three Waters Review will all be taken into account but we've got to keep to the matter at hand here which is we are operating under the laws of today. We're not presuming anything. We have the legal precedent as I said earlier of the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Act 2013 and the water committee have committed to meeting any obligations that will come from any increase in requirements for water quality. I will acknowledge the select committee and the committee of the whole House for beefing up those clauses—particularly clause 8(1) and 8(3).So without further ado I'd like to thank the officials for the good work they did particularly in travelling down to Gore. As mentioned before I thank again the select committee for the good work and good intent—Paul Eagle I see just pulled in here still pulls me aside all the time to talk about the quality of the smoko that he got down there that day—and I thank members from across the House that engaged positively in this bill. So Tom the ball is back in your court shortly. When we pass this bill you will get the ability to take this board—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! Just before the member finishes can the member say the whole name for the record and that is the tradition in the House—full name.MARK PATTERSON: So Tom Affleck chairman of the Otama Rural Water Supply scheme the ball is back in your court and we know that you will guide this further astutely as you have for the last 25 years. So it is an absolute pleasure in commending this bill to the House.