Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party to oppose this bill today. I also rise on behalf of the people of Waimakariri who I serve: the 95 percent of Waimakariri residents who chose to opt out of this bill. That was at the time that the Government promised them that they could opt out. Yet what we found with the release of ministerial documents that decision to legislate all in had already been made when the Waimakariri District Council was consulting their residents.They believe that this bill comes into the House today in good faith; it comes in in bad blood. This Government has misled New Zealanders; it has no mandate. That's why when we are in Government in 12 months' time we will repeal and replace this bill.When you listen to the Labour speakers this morning the absolute arrogance. We've heard comments If the public just bothered to read the bill"—well they have read the bill. That's why they oppose this bill that you have rammed through under urgency and extended sitting before Christmas.The public will not forget what you have done to them. They will remember that you do not have a mandate. My observation of the firestorm with the entrenchment Supplementary Order Paper is that maybe in the first term at the height of "Jacindamania" the media and the public would have not delved into that issue that they have in the last week. Maybe under the guise of COVID the public and the media would have not had the time. It is interesting now though that the voracity that the media and the public took to the arrogance of entrenchment says a lot.In my view it said the public have lost confidence in this Government. They have lost trust in this Government. This Government has no credibility. Look at the talking points that they're using today. Look at that last speaker—"this bill is about clean water." No it's not. This bill is about the establishment of four mega-entities that will take control of ratepayer-owned assets. This is State theft-by-stealth. Ratepayers will not have control of their water assets.They know when they first pitched this idea—remember the ads—it was about green sludge coming out of pipes. They don't mention that any more because they know it was misleading—like everything they've said over the last 18 months—misinformation. That's what this Government is now known as: the Government of spin the Government of misinformation. And because the polls are now tanking and they've finally owned up to the cost of living crisis now they're like "Oh this is a cost of living crisis solution." Could you believe it? What a backflip that is.It's no surprise that I'm the first Canterbury MP to get up today because you won't hear a Labour Canterbury MP get up and speak on this bill. They have been silent in Canterbury the whole year. Cantabrians do not want this bill. It's gone down like a cup of cold sick. They know they will be judged in 12 months' time on this bill.I must say a picture paints a thousand words and to watch the Labour Government backbenchers pile in this morning it was clear they had been whipped to sit in this House for the first reading by the Minister. To look at them and the look on their face as they swallowed that dead rat—they did not want to be here. Not only were they swallowing on that dead rat but they were choking on that dead rat as they were whipped into being in here. Welcome to being a backbencher in an unpopular Government where those Government backbenchers are marching to defeat in 12 months' time for ever known as the Government of three waters."