Wedd CatherineCATHERINE WEDD (National—Tukituki): Look I rise in support of the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill because this is a momentous day for water infrastructure in New Zealand. It took the last Government six years and $1.2 billion to come up with an undemocratic highly controversial co-governance three waters structure for our water infrastructure in New Zealand with nothing to show for it. Just a whole lot of wasteful spending centralisation bureaucracy and no practical solutions.As the member on the other side of the House earlier pointed out about the slogan Stop three waters" which yes we saw all across the country for the last couple of years because people across the country didn't agree with the undemocratic co-governance model—but it's taken this Government just 10 months just 10 months to put a popular democratic solution in place and put water infrastructure in this country back into local ownership. Local democracy: a popular popular policy.And councils and people around the country are supportive of this local ownership and control as we heard from many many submissions to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I'd actually just like to congratulate a lot of those councils and mayors that came forth to support of our Local Water Done Well.Look I am from Havelock North where we saw the water crisis in 2016. So I would just like to acknowledge that because it has been acknowledged here in the House tonight. I would just like to acknowledge the families and the people who were impacted because lives were lost and thousands of people did get sick including a few of my own family members back in 2016. Everybody in Hawke's Bay knows somebody who was impacted by the Havelock North water crisis. Our whole community literally felt like we were being poisoned. For days we were drinking contaminated water and thousands did get sick. This was not OK. Our Hastings District Council was in charge of drinking water but people died and we did not have safe drinking water.We know that we must do more to ensure that our water infrastructure delivers safe water across New Zealand but centralising our water assets and putting it in undemocratic ownership is not the answer. We must keep it in local ownership and work harder across the country as local councils to ensure that we have safe drinking water. And working harder at councils to ensure we have safe drinking water is really important. Look I would just like to acknowledge our Hawke's Bay councils because in Hastings the council has spent over $100 million on a state-of-the-art water treatment facility. Waiaroha attracts thousands of people every year to come and have a look at how we treat water in Hastings. It is quite incredible and it is amazing. It's actually the first of its kind in New Zealand—in the Southern Hemisphere I understand. It actually was just recognised for an award recently in June where it gained national recognition. And the reason I talk about this is because this is a huge investment that has already been made in Hastings and in Hawke's Bay.I will just mention that our Hawke's Bay councils actually were very very supportive of our water done well policies because they've expressed support for water infrastructure staying in local ownership and local control. I would just like to congratulate those Hawke's Bay councils—the Central Hawke's Bay District Council the Hastings District Council the Wairoa District Council and the Napier City Council—because they have all jointly got together they've collaboratively put together a proposal in terms of how they can see water infrastructure working really well and being able to deliver it well for ratepayers across the Hawke's Bay and East Coast area.Because councils need to get back to basics. We heard this very loud and clear as we've already spoken about in the House tonight from our Prime Minister last week where he said "We need our councils to get back to basics in New Zealand." And that is fixing the pipes it's filling in potholes and it's maintaining local assets effectively and efficiently. Nothing in life is free. You expect your rates to pay for this kind of stuff but at the moment we are seeing a lot of pet projects nice to haves and a lot of spending—distractions and experiments that are plaguing council's balance sheets across the country.That's why our Government as we've already spoken about—[Interruption] No I'm coming back to why this is very important for water infrastructure because water infrastructure of course is a number one priority for councils where they do need to get back to those basics. So some of those announcements last week included making changes to the Local Government Act to restore council's focus on local services and infrastructure and investigating performance benchmarks—yes performance benchmarks. That may be something that the other side of the House hasn't heard much of or can relate to because it should be about setting performance benchmarks and targets so we can deliver results and be outcome-driven and have practical solutions which is what we're very focused on on this side of the House.Ingrid Leary: Great slogans. What do they mean?CATHERINE WEDD: And investigating options to limit councils from spending ratepayer's money on pet projects and nice-to-haves. Getting away from that kind of ideology and reviewing the transparency and accountability which is what we do on this side of the House looking at transparency and accountability and democratic decision-making for our ratepayers and our taxpayers across this country.We're stopping wasteful spending. Shifting money from the back office to the front lines; setting clear delivery targets. Yes we talk about delivery targets and expectations and prioritising what we do and letting Kiwis keep more of what they earn. These are all the types of things that get us back to basics get us focusing on the core things that will actually make a difference in this country. That is why we have expressed that message to councils like we have to our Government agencies as well that we need to go line by line stop the wasteful spending remove the bureaucracy focus on better customer service and delivering for our ratepayers and end the projects that aren't delivering value for money. Yes value for money. Now there's a slogan to that member on the other side of the House. That's what we need to be thinking about.Actually I was just at an event tonight and I spoke to a councillor actually who came up to me and she said "Oh it was great what your Prime Minister delivered last week talking about councils getting back to basics and measuring results." because she said "Look now we can sit around the council table and we can say 'Look that's what the Government's doing. That's what they're saying and that's what we need to do.' We need to focus on what really matters and delivering for our ratepayers."So coming back to our water infrastructure because that is where councils need to be putting a lot of focus. It was great through the submission process because we did hear from a lot of councils across the country. Of course some are very progressive in this space where they've already got together and they're collaboratively putting together plans like I've already talked about which Hawke's Bay where they've got their Local Water Done Well plan. And they're already collaborating together to ensure that we can deliver better water infrastructure across Hawke's Bay. Water is a big issue for Hawke's Bay because of course we're a growing region and we rely heavily on our water. Currently we have seen the allocations across the Heretaunga Plains being significantly decreased and of course this has huge wider ramifications for our region in terms of being able to grow what we grow but also drive more productivity.So water is certainly an issue that is very front of mind for us all. And that is why our Local Water Done Well is going to deliver for New Zealand. It is the democratic localism that we need right now."