Whaitiri Meka; Dean JacquiWATER SERVICES BILLThird ReadingHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs) on behalf of the Minister of Local Government: I move That the Water Services Bill be now read a third time. It is with pleasure that I rise for the third reading of this bill. I do want to acknowledge the efforts of all parties in ensuring that this piece of legislation has reached its final reading today. Everybody in Aotearoa should be able to get drinking water from the tap knowing that it is safe. We should also be able to swim or gather mahinga kai in our rivers lakes or at the beach without fear of becoming sick. We have an obligation to ensure this for current and future generations.I've previously outlined to the House the systemic failure of the existing drinking-water regulatory arrangements. The existing arrangements allowed the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak to take place in 2016 leading to the deaths of up to four people and forcing thousands to become sick. They allowed at a conservative estimate 34000 New Zealanders to get sick from drinking their household water every year. They allowed over half of supplies serving 5000 or fewer consumers to operate without meeting drinking-water standards. This is completely unacceptable and I'm sure it's unacceptable to every member of this House and to the vast majority of New Zealanders. This is why the Government has committed to the three waters reforms with the Water Services Bill playing an integral part.The Water Services Bill will provide a new regulatory regime for drinking-water suppliers along with targeted reforms to improve the environmental performance of our three waters infrastructure. This bill will provide a clear leadership for drinking-water regulation through a new central regulator Taumata Arowai and will strengthen compliance monitoring and enforcement of the drinking-water system. It will create a requirement for a multi-barrier approach to protecting drinking-water supplies. It will include all drinking-water supplies in the new system apart from the domestic self-suppliers. It will ensure that source waters are protected and monitored. It will provide measures to significantly improve the transparency and environmental performance of our publicly owned three waters infrastructure. It will enable flexibility so the regulation of drinking water is proportionate to the scale complexity and risk profile of each drinking-water supply and it will require those who have functions duties and powers under the bill to give effect to Te Mana o te Wai in a way that is consistent with the National Policy Statement for Fresh Water Management.I'd like to briefly respond to some of the points that were raised during the committee of the whole House stage of the bill. Some members of the Opposition questioned whether the regime would work for small and rural supplies particularly those that are run by volunteers or community groups. Some members of the Opposition also questioned whether the offences in the bill were too high for very small suppliers. Significant work has gone into the design of the legislation to ensure it is fit for purpose for small supplies. Suppliers will have to provide safe drinking water and meet drinking-water standards including those supplies that are run by volunteers or community groups.The existing regime under the Health Act has applied to supplies run by volunteers and community groups since 2007 so this is not a significant change to the existing law. However the Water Services Bill does contain a legal defence specifically for volunteers and this is new. The bill also has significantly lower penalties for individuals than for organisations. The financial penalties are equivalent to those in other similar regimes like the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Food Act. More importantly I need to emphasise that the bill contains very practical simple cost-effective ways to allow small and rural suppliers to comply. This is a significant improvement to the existing regime which is one-size-fits-all. The aim is to make it easier for small suppliers to provide safe drinking water to communities not to take them to court.Finally I also need to emphasise that Parliament has now amended the bill so that unregistered drinking-water suppliers will have a full seven years before they have to comply with the new regime. This is a long period and it will give a significant amount of time for small suppliers to understand the new requirements and allow Taumata Arowai to work with them appropriately tailor the system and provide support. One member of the Opposition Barbara Kuriger MP spoke at length about the need for an exemption for small suppliers. I want to reiterate that population cut-offs have not worked well in this area as populations change. It is simply not workable for a supply to sometimes be in the system and sometimes be out. The better approach is to have a regime that can be tailored to small suppliers and to give them a reasonable period to understand the new obligations.I also want to respond to questions raised by the Hon Eugenie Sage MP who was a member of the Health Committee which considered the bill. At the late stage of committee deliberations the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment wrote to the committee and suggested that the provisions in the bill enabling Taumata Arowai to have oversight of the environmental performance of three waters infrastructure should be relabelled. The committee received advice and changed the name of these powers and functions to infrastructure performers". In retrospect this was the wrong decision. The Government always intended Taumata Arowai to have oversight of the environmental performance of three waters infrastructure and this role is reflected throughout the objectives and functions of Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Act 2020 which was passed last year. I want to reiterate how proud I am to see this bill come to this final parliamentary stage. This bill along with our broader package of the three waters reforms demonstrates this Government's commitment to addressing the significant problems that face our three waters infrastructure. It also provides a comprehensive response to the recommendations of the Havelock North inquiry. Outside of this bill the House will be aware of the service delivery reform proposals the Government is discussing with local government and iwi to establish water services entities. These entities will have the benefit of superior funding mechanisms including overcoming council debt constraints the ability to spread costs over wider pools of population and operational efficiencies.Service delivery reform is also essential as many of our publicly owned drinking-water supplies particularly those that service provincial or rural communities have not complied with drinking-water standards for too long and some have never complied. In addition environmental standards are rising and communities no longer accept the discharge of sewage or mortuary waste to waterways on the ocean. We need to face up to these challenges not shy away from them. I'm really proud to be a part of this side of the House passing this bill. This bill as I said will deliver on transformational change for the health and safety of our communities as well as upholding a high standard of Te Mana o te Wai. I commend the Water Services Bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."