Pham LanLAN PHAM (Green): Close—Lan Pham. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Oh sorry—I'm so sorry. LAN PHAM: That's totally sweet. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The photos are really really small! LAN PHAM: Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Firstly I want to thank the member who's just spoken Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for putting this bill into the perspective and context that it actually needs: seeing the challenge of this massive under-investment and our road ahead in the context of our mokopuna.It's been well-traversed already how significant the legacy of our under-investment in water infrastructure is not just for us as people but for our environment and so I'm really pleased to speak again in opposition to the repeal of these Acts.I had the privilege of serving on Canterbury Regional Council for two terms and it was rather disconcerting over that time to see the misinformation and deliberate drumming up of race-based rhetoric not only from our current Government now but from local government elected members too. And I believe the public deserves better.But I really want to use councils as an example here because councils are typically made up of people from very diverse backgrounds with different views and despite these differences in opinion councils ultimately figure out how to work together. And it prompts me to beg the question: why is it so hard for this Government to work constructively?The Government's approach of scrapping the reforms—scrapping the Natural and Built Environment Act scrapping the Spatial Planning Act and now scrapping the water services Acts—is a huge missed opportunity to build on the work that has been done so far and is now leaving councils and communities facing years of uncertainty. There was scope for this Government to amend rather than repeal. Starting from scratch on the reform process due to knee-jerk governance means time lost and uncertainty for how the system will operate moving forward. And it's a huge missed opportunity and one I cannot stress enough.We could have built on the good things that were in the reform that we need and we know are so important to making the system effective: aspects like recognising the importance of iwi and hapū at the decision-making table aspects like mandating for nature-based solutions for infrastructure investment that have multitudes of other benefits—biodiversity benefits recreational benefits amenity benefits and the list goes on.Kiwis deserve better because effective governance of water services has to be integrated with good land-use planning and spatial planning in alignment with our actual natural catchments and the actual movement of water through our entire ecosystem ki uta ki tai from the mountains to sea and the repeal of these Acts now takes us further away from that.Whatever comes next the wider and longstanding call from local government for better funding models must be taken into account. These reforms must now ensure that shifting the assets and liabilities back to councils does not leave them under more financial pressure because we know that ultimately councils under pressure means flow-on impacts with cuts to other services and wellbeing functions that are so important to communities and we know that they suffer.Councils need sustainable funding mechanisms and central government should be listening not only to local government but to the wider recommendations of the Future for Local Government review that has many improvements that would have aided us in our water services challenges ahead. Good governance over water services and our water resources is inseparable from better land-use planning and genuine Te Tiriti partnership and governance and the repeal of these Acts simply gets it wrong.