O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Some say the definition of insanity" or "stupidity" is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. This incoming coalition Government is going to hand back to councils and expect them to solve an issue they've not been able to solve for decades.When we came into Government we thought "We have to do something different here" because in 2016 many many people had been harmed in Havelock North. And there were many other communities around the country that were having water challenges. I have some sympathy for local government leaders. There's lots of leaders but there's not much leadership. It's very hard to show leadership if you're proposing to have rates increases. But that is what is necessary—billions and billions of dollars—to deal with the under-investment in crucial infrastructure.Water the source of life arguably the single-biggest advantage that our country has over many of our competitors—we turn it into valuable food products to go around the world because we have a reliable supply of water good clean water. And so when this challenge was before us we said "Well should it be one water?"—drinking water clearly where people in Havelock North had been harmed for their lives because of incompetence and many more risky situations. We said "Should it be just one or should it be three?"Well I'm glad to follow the previous speaker Cameron Brewer who sat on a council that has incompetently overseen the water assets of Auckland where we've had billions of dollars of destruction to private assets—the assets that he would say he protects; those homeowners who through stormwater non-management have seen their assets destroyed and beaches that can't be swum at after a rain event. And do you know what? We said "We need to address all three: drinking water stormwater and waste water."Many local-body leaders around the country have had their heads in the sand and those same people were the ones who opposed the proposal from us to do it differently to solve this for future generations. Shame on local government leaders that campaigned against us. You go back to your communities and try to sell a 50 percent rates increase. You go back to your communities and sell a 30 percent rates increase. Good luck to you! I'd suggest you won't be voted in next time. I understand the challenges a local government leader has. We do have to invest. We as Government were prepared to come in to sit down and work through this. Yes it was three waters not one because we thought it was important—in Auckland in particular where we see the interaction and the interface between them all.Let's roll forward a little way. Tourism was our biggest industry till COVID came along. The iconic destinations of Queenstown Fox Glacier in the Speaker's electorate and Punakaiki—they have boil-water notices. People spend tens of thousands of dollars to come to our country to see this beautiful pristine landscape and they go to these destinations and are told they have to boil the water. What does that do to our reputation? That's why we need to invest in the future. That's why the mayors from places like let's see—let's call a few of them out. The Far North District Council: 33 percent rates increase required; Hamilton 25 percent; Buller District looking at 30 percent; Porirua up to 50 percent. Well good luck when you impose those costs on communities where there are many many people who can't afford the rates at the moment. We had a proposal to do something different and that naive Minister of Local Government sits in his seat now with all these wonderful empty promises and says that it won't cost more. Well he's either going to sell the assets or allow the councils to increase their rates. And in the House today we saw criticism of the Labour Government that we had increased debt to 24 percent of GDP. Well it's a bit uncomfortable—still at the lowest level of the OECD countries—24 percent. So then we'll go and say "Well what are we expecting councils to do?" Well in New Zealand's fastest-growing area Selwyn they'll have to dramatically increase their debt to 220 percent of their revenue. Good luck! Good luck if that's what is required to invest in the future that we need to protect the lives and the health of future generations. Lots of leaders no leadership and so too for this coalition Government.Shame on you for this. And for those people who will be coming to our iconic destinations in the future maybe there will be new alternative or creative ways of paying. Maybe they will have to pay for the meter as they get the water from the tap to pay for a mini chlorination plant or whatever. What we were proposing to do in Government was to share the risks and to share the rewards. The rewards were the reduced costs of building this infrastructure into the future. Yes it is a colossal cost and there might be some debate around efficiency. There are claims that we spent $1.2 billion and none of it went to council. Well it did and if we had some honest council leaders they'd get up and say like my predecessor Rachel Boyack "$30 million was spent on a water plant." There is hundreds of millions of dollars spent across this country on urgent water infrastructure work and thank you to the councils that went on and did that but shame on them for not putting up their hands and saying that money was necessary and we need more and we need to change the structure of how we do this into the future.So I'm not quite sure how the Government is going to do it other than in my cynical view setting up structures and encouraging councils to sell off their assets. We've seen this before from the National Government. Oh the Minister will pooh-pooh that. Well wait and see Minister. We'll be judging you on the results of this because what we have—you know of course people ask me "What's this Government doing?" Well it's not what they're doing; it's what they're not doing—not what they're doing; it's what they're not doing. They're not doing anything. All they're doing so far is pulling apart the proposals and the progress that we had put in place. Oh we won't say they're perfect but they were progressive. And all we've seen since the coalition Government came together is stepping back. And in this area future generations are going to pay a huge price for this. Small communities around the country that cannot afford to put in place safe drinking water safe stormwater systems safe waste-water systems are going to have to go somewhere.So I say to local government leaders and those who are looking to stand on local government: good luck to you. Please work with the coalition Government and see what progress you can make. But it's urgent and the communities like Queenstown where they had cryptosporidium; places like Fox which had E. coli; places like Punakaiki which had an unreliable water supply—those council staff and those councillors will be obliged to provide safe drinking water to people who have come to our country to try to have a great experience. They won't want to get sick and if they pick up the paper or go on Google they will very quickly identify the fact that the councils have not invested to ensure their safety while they're here the Government didn't do anything different to ensure they would support the councils to provide that safety and so we're back to the level of stupidity in this country that thinks we can just hand it back to councils make them become economically sustainable. It dribbles out of the Minister's mouth—"The councils will have to come to us with financial reports that ensure sustainability".It's really tough out there at the moment. Don't blame the local governments. The fact is that we have not invested in the past we need to in the future and this is a huge lost opportunity because putting our best foot forward working with councils and trying to come up with something that would protect future generations is what we did in Government and this coalition Government is just reversing that to the detriment of everyone in the future."