Simmonds Penny; Mahuta Nanaia; Rurawhe AdrianPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Chair. Could the Minister explain to us what she said earlier in the day in the House that she was very pleased with the consultative work that had gone on with Federated Farmers and how that aligns with the comments from Federated Farmers—under the headline Feds' worst fears realised on drinking water reforms—that said "We wanted the government to recognise the folly of trying to track down every single little supplier. We asked for anyone supplying less than fifty people be exempted but in the end were not heard."? And does the Minister agree that in fact this could put people in a worse position—if suppliers opt out of continuing to supply and people are forced into collecting rain water for their drinking water they would actually be in a much worse situation?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Local Government): I want to take from a letter that I received on 21 September from Andrew Hoggard national president of Federated Farmers the following quote—and I apologise for the length of time taken to extract this quote for the committee's benefit. He has said "It is encouraging that compliance with acceptable solutions including end point treatment will remove the need for drinking water safety plans and source water risk management plans and that consumer complaints processes will not apply to very small suppliers. We support more time being provided in the legislation for registration of water suppliers and we welcome your assurance that registration processes will be simple and free with templates and guidance available. Much will depend on the detail of acceptable solutions for small rural water supplies. Federated Farmers is committed to engaging with Taumata Arowai to ensure that acceptable solutions are fit for purpose and provide for safe drinking water at a reasonable cost with as little compliance hassle as possible. However at this stage at least there are still many uncertainties." In saying that they've indicated at the end of the letter: "Thank you again for hearing our concerns and responding to them." and they would welcome maintaining a dialogue with myself and officials to develop win-win solutions. I seek to table the letter in the Chamber today.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is not. It may be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.PENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Chair. Could the Minister then please guarantee and have those comments put into the legislation that with smaller rural water schemes they will not be required to have all the compliance matters that she just listed from that letter from Andrew Hoggard?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Local Government): At this juncture let me speak to the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that I've tabled on this bill. I've been listening to submissions made to the Health Committee the concerns raised by committee members and I thank them for their diligence because they responded to my request to ensure that we had workable solutions and the subsequent public discussion following the bill's report back to Parliament. My SOP responds to concerns that have been raised. I want to speak about the measures in it so that other parliamentarians who were not a part of the select committee may understand it in a fulsome way.Firstly the SOP extends the time in which unregistered drinking-water suppliers will come into the new regime. Unregistered suppliers will have four years to register with Taumata Arowai and seven years to comply with the new requirements. This responds to concerns raised by small suppliers about compliance with the new regime including those in the rural sector. The extension will give time for small suppliers to understand the new requirements and give Taumata Arowai time to work with them fully tailor the system to them and provide support to small suppliers. It also aligns with the time frames in which the new water service entities will be established. This was important to the Health Committee—again I acknowledge them—which had already extended time frames for registration based on submissions on the bill. I know that National MP Chris Luxon has tabled an SOP proposing that the bill does not apply to suppliers serving fewer than 30 consumers. The Government cannot support this. It abandons small communities as I've said and gives them no clear way forward to have safe drinking water. The better approach I would've thought is to tailor the new regime to the needs of small suppliers and give them treatment options—like for example UV filter devices that are simple and cost-effective. This is what the bill does and the legacy of this approach I believe will be safe drinking water throughout New Zealand irrespective of where people live.Secondly my SOP extends waste-water powers and functions for Taumata Arowai. This is important as many submissions to the Health Committee said that the sewage that is discharging into our rivers and beaches is simply not acceptable. I agree with those submissions and want to ensure that Taumata Arowai has much stronger powers in this area. Taumata Arowai will have the power to make environmental performance standards for publicly owned waste-water networks. These are minimum standards which must be included in the new resource consent or if they relate to trade waste in bylaws. This power brings New Zealand into line with other countries including member States of the European Union the UK Canada USA Australia and South Africa which all impose some form of minimum standards on publicly owned waste-water networks.Every publicly owned waste-water network will be required to have a risk management plan. These plans are subject to oversight by Taumata Arowai and will considerably improve planning and safety for waste-water networks. The SOP clarifies that all of Taumata Arowai's oversight powers for waste-water networks extend to trade waste. This was always the intention of the bill but some organisations—Forest & Bird—questioned whether this is the case. It will mean that Taumata Arowai will provide much-needed oversight to trade waste. Taumata Arowai will be able to set targets for publicly owned three waters infrastructure which network operators will have to report against.Thirdly the SOP extends Taumata Arowai's environmental performance powers in the bill to drinking-water network infrastructure. This means that Taumata Arowai will have the ability to shine a light on the impact of drinking-water networks on the environment and report for example on rates of leakage of drinking water. Its powers here will be analogous to those that already exist in the bill for waste- and stormwater networks and their operators.Finally the SOP will also make refinements and technical amendments across a range of clauses. I do want to acknowledge and thank the Hon Eugenie Sage for some of her technical amendments. This follows detailed ongoing review of the provisions by officials to make sure the legislation is as good as it can be."