Pham LanLAN PHAM (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. As the member Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has just pointed out it's about clean safe drinking water; it's about waste water that isn't discharged directly into our waterways; it's about stormwater that doesn't contaminate the places where our kids swim. These are the outcomes that we and our communities so desperately need and want and I want to thank the previous speaker for grounding that reality in Te Tai Tokerau as an example.These are the things that are now further away thanks to the passing of this Government's Water Services Acts Repeal Bill. I found it quite incredible to hear one of the Government members refer last night during the previous readings to the reforms of the previous Government as an overreaction" to the Havelock North tragedy when thousands of people got sick and people lost their lives from the water simply coming out of their taps.The inquiry conducted as a result estimated that as many as 100000 Kiwis get sick from drinking contaminated water every year and more recently the Ministry of Heath's report on drinking water found 21 percent of our population here in our purportedly clean green Aotearoa received drinking water that was not demonstrably safe. We don't have to look any further than what happened in Queenstown in November and December with cryptosporidium poisoning and months of boiled water notices to face the reality that (a) these issues still exist—and this was a very well reported one but we know that they exist around the country every day—and (b) these failures of political inaction and decades of under-investment impact not only the health of our people but our environment our economy and our international reputation.So no I don't agree with the member that these water service reforms of the previous Government were an overreaction. But the repeal of these bills certainly is: a knee-jerk misinformed overreaction that takes us further away from effective water services that deliver for human health and don't pollute our previous te taiao along the way.My fellow members and I asked a multitude of important questions throughout the prior readings and committee of the whole House and they were still left unanswered. And they were really basic reasonable questions about Te Tiriti rights being protected and the implications for councils who were right in the middle of their long-term plan consultations—the most important conversation they had with their communities in the entire term when ratepayers suddenly find this Government is saving money by passing the cost on to ratepayers.The Minister was asked many important relevant questions and had very little to nothing to say in his answers. And I suspect they've gone unanswered because this Government simply doesn't have the answers—because their entire policy platform is based on empty rhetoric with no substance. Well luckily the way forward which this Government is welcome to pick up—nau mai—is pretty clear. It's elements like governance structures and the delivery and implementation of services that uphold tino rangatiratanga of iwi Māori and hapū under Te Tiriti. It's things like enabling strong local voice to have meaningful influence on decisions and giving local government the tools for funding and financing to actually avoid raiding their communities into oblivion. It's about nature-based infrastructure solutions integrating it all with good land-use planning and spatial planning and hey presto you've got a long-term way forward.The Aotearoa that I and so many Kiwis want to live in is where we don't have fear or doubt about the water coming out of our taps or question whether our kids or pets will get sick from just coming into contact with our waterways. This repeal keeps this Government on track for getting us back to nothing but the same old political inaction and indecision leaving our kids grandkids and future generations to ultimately pay the price and the Green Party wholeheartedly opposes it. Thank you."