Brown Simeon; Kuriger BarbaraLOCAL GOVERNMENT (WATER SERVICES PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS) BILLSecond ReadingHon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): I move That the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill be now read a second time. This bill is a critical piece of legislation. It makes up the next step of this Government's Local Water Done Well plan which is part of our coalition Government's plan for addressing New Zealand's water infrastructure challenges. I want to start by thanking the Finance and Expenditure Committee for considering the bill and for its recommendations that it has put forward to the House. New Zealand's longstanding water infrastructure challenges require locally led and financially sustainable solutions. Labour attempted a water reform approach which was ultimately an unpopular mega-entity co-governed model which cost taxpayers $1.25 billion and it was overwhelmingly rejected by New Zealanders at the last election. Earlier this year we delivered on our election commitment to repeal and end Labour's divisive three waters legislative reforms and to return water services to local communities to local ownership and to local control. The previous Government's three waters legislation was so unpopular they received 88000 submissions opposing it at select committee. Local Water Done Well outlines an approach and provides the settings for councils to have financially sustainable water services while retaining control over their assets their communities have paid for. This bill enables councils to self-determine their pathway to financially sustainable delivery models. We're not here to impose a one-size-fits-all approach on councils that know their communities best. Councils will determine their preferred delivery arrangements through developing water service delivery plans and must demonstrate how they will deliver their water services in a way that is financially sustainable and that will meet regulatory standards for water and infrastructure quality. The Government recognises that for many councils this would be best achieved through collaboration. That's why this bill enables councils to jointly submit a plan. The Government also anticipates that some councils may benefit from assistance with their plans and has therefore required that a Crown facilitator or water services specialist can be appointed to assist councils or to prepare a plan on their behalf. Councils can request this support if they wish so. The bill further supports councils who are ready to transform their water services delivery at pace. It provides a streamlined option for consulting and deciding on forming a water services council-controlled organisation or a joint local government arrangement as an alternative to Local Government Act 2002 processes. The future economic regulator—the Commerce Commission—will benefit from the disclosure of specific information in the water service delivery plans as it works towards developing a full regulatory regime. Disclosure via the plans will also give councils some lead time to get themselves ready for full economic regulation. Finally this bill delivers on our Government's election promise to provide a financially sustainable approach for water infrastructure in Auckland and that is exactly what we have delivered. Earlier this year Watercare projected that there would be a 25.8 percent water rate hike for Aucklanders in July. This 25.8 percent water rate hike would have piled costs on to Aucklanders already struggling with a prolonged cost of living crisis increasing the cost of average annual household water rates by $348 per year. The previous Government spent $1.25 billion—$1.25 billion—on their failed three waters plan and it failed to deliver a solution for New Zealanders. We worked with Auckland Council to implement a new model that gives Watercare financial independence while allowing the council to retain complete ownership and control. Local Water Done Well for Auckland will substantially reduce Aucklanders' future water bills from the previous projections of a 25.8 percent increase in water rates down to 7.2 percent. Now members on the opposite side of the House including the former Minister of Local Government himself claim that their three waters plan would have delivered lower rates for Aucklanders than Local Water Done Well but they've failed to own up to the fact that their modelling imposed a price cap on the new entity A. The choice that they fail to answer—the choice that they fail to answer—is what would they like Watercare to have stopped doing because if they were to have had a price cap of 2 percent they would have had to either reduce how much maintenance they were doing in Auckland which would have meant leaks on the streets in Auckland as well as leaks on the streets in Wellington or it would have meant a stopwork on the Central Interceptor. Well the reforms that we've proposed have meant that Aucklanders are able to have lower bills they're able to continue investment and the maintenance is able to continue. This is what Local Water Done Well is all about. After the bill's introduction the Government also tabled an Amendment Paper to address its concerns about the cost to local authorities and ratepayers of reconsenting a number of waste-water treatment plants. This interim amendment to the Water Services Act 2021 means that the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy of obligations in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management will not apply when Taumata Arowai sets waste-water standards. These changes are a pragmatic approach to applying the hierarchy while work is under way to rebalance the national policy statement of Te Mana o te Wai as signalled in our coalition agreements. I want to thank the Finance and Expenditure Committee for its hard work considering the bill and progressing it at pace to ensure that the foundations of Local Water Done Well are able to be put in place as quickly as possible. I also want to thank the submitters for taking the time to submit. Recommendations relating to the water service delivery plans include clarifying that the plans are one-off in nature making implementation plans mandatory to increase transparency and accountability and specifically allowing plans to include information for periods of up to 30 years in addition to the minimum of 10 years where doing so would help to identify future investment requirements or support future housing and urban development. Another key recommendation is to require councils to give effect to some aspects of their plans as a way of ensuring that councils commit to starting to implement them. I think these are very sensible amendments. The committee recommended several changes to the role of the Crown monitor in relation to Watercare following submissions from particularly Auckland Council. For instance the Secretary for Local Government will now prepare Watercare's charter instead of the Crown monitor and is required to consult with Auckland Council Watercare Taumata Arowai and the Commerce Commission in preparing that. This ensures an appropriate separation between roles such as the Crown monitor who will be responsible for implementing the monitoring and it also addresses Auckland Council's concerns about too much power being concentrated in the Crown monitor. We think that's a fair way and it separates those concerns for Auckland Council. Finally the committee recommended that the Amendment Paper be included in the bill in its entirety noting its intention to be an interim measure while the Government updates the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. This amendment to the Water Services Act will give certainty to those involved in infrastructure development and it will prepare the sector for the significant number of waste-water treatment plants that are due for reconsenting. This bill takes another significant step forward to the implementation of Local Water Done Well a higher-quality safer and more resilient water services system. The previous Government spent $1.25 billion—$1.25 billion—on their three waters plan and had nothing to show for it. Councils and voters resoundingly rejected their approach at the last election. Expensive bureaucratic—you don't have to go far to look at all the mess that the last Government created with their centralisation. The mess we see with Te Pūkenga the mess we see with Health New Zealand—thank goodness we've managed to stop this one now in its tracks before we saw the mess that this bureaucratic expensive and co-governed approach the last Government had to three waters. Our Government is listening to New Zealanders and our Local Water Done Well will deliver better financially sustainable and affordable water services while retaining local control of water infrastructure for New Zealanders. I commend this bill to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.