Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It is lovely to hear Ingrid Leary the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee complimenting my colleague Andrew Bayly. He is very passionate about these topics and no doubt he actually wanted to improve the bill and I acknowledge the chair and thank her for acknowledging the Opposition's contribution to make the bill better. So when I was listening to Andrew Bayly apart from going half deaf because he's very loud very loud—ha ha! I am just always very in awe of his passion when he speaks on these topics and what he reminded me of—as I'm a person who comes from the visual sort of industry before my time in Parliament—when he was talking about how this bill actually is wasting a lot of time in terms of flash offices or whatever I just had this picture of an empty office space down in the viaduct when the former Minister of Transport actually decided that he wanted to create a walking and cycling bridge and he actually rented a big office space and paid couple of million dollars for it and it sat empty and then the policy got cancelled. That's such a waste.As Mr Bayly said on this side of the House we are opposing this bill. On economic regulations we actually believe in sound economic and commercial regulation including that economic regulation and consumer protection is actually paramount. We really believe in that but we believe that it has to be for the right water services entity and the local councils that own the water assets not the three waters bill. In a cost of living crisis I think it is paramount that the Government becomes like a parent in a sense in a household that they lead by example. And when the Government is seen as not being very cautious or responsible in the manner that they actually spend taxpayers' money I think people citizens will be very disappointed and it is not actually a good example.So the Water Services Entity Bill—not this one but the Water Services Entity Bill passed its third reading in December of 2020. This particular bill the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill is to provide the independent commercial scrutiny of the entities."—and I'm reading from the bill notes. It actually establishes a new set of economic regulations on the entities and consumer protection for the water services sector with the Commerce Commission as the regulator with the appointment of a new Water Commissioner. I think that's literally what Mr Bayly was actually talking about that anyone with experience but without necessarily having worked in the water industry can actually become the commissioner. That seems a little odd.The reason why I say that is recently in this House—not so recently—when we were debating another bill in relation to the RNZ and TVNZ merger they had consultants who were actually brought in to help the officials and members of Parliament who were debating the issue. Not one of the consultants who were brought in actually was an expert in media nor public media or broadcasting. That would seem really ridiculous that people who the Government who spends taxpayer money is actually consulting had absolutely no experience in the subject matter that we were actually writing legislation about and debating in the Chamber. This seems like another one where just anybody could potentially be the commissioner and that is a little bit worrying.There are actually several regulatory impact statements that I actually would like to quote if I may. The regulatory impact statement states that there is a huge transitional uncertainty created because of the reform and I quote "Over time it may become evident that the scope or form of economic regulation is not in the best interest of water consumers." is actually one.The other one is that in the regulatory impact statement officials have actually warned that changes can be put on tenants via higher rents with substantial risks—and some prices increase significantly due to under investment and uncertainty. And when you actually create a mega entity actually four entities—Hon Member: Ten.MELISSA LEE: Sorry 10—10 entities. Obviously I wasn't part of the select committee. I think that when you actually consider that it's a humongous cost to the country. And when a lot of the consultations and public consultations through the select committee where people actually feel that their views and their opinions actually didn't matter because of the way that the Government seemed to be ramming legislation through this House it is rather disappointing. Not just disappointing. It is quite shocking that we are here under urgency debating yet another water services bill in the House.When you actually talk to local government and people who are in the regions they actually feel that their assets have been stolen by Government. They want to own their own assets and they need the Government to assist them. Some of them have great water services but there are those that who actually need help. For that we will make sure that we have the right legislation when we are in Government after 14 October to make sure that the people of New Zealand can rely on decent and good water services legislation rather than this three waters legislation that this Government has produced. On that note I do not commend this bill; I oppose it."