The Ashburton District Council emphasised its strong opposition to the Water Services Entities (WSE) Amendment Bill at hearings last week.

Deputy Mayor Liz McMillan and Council Chief Executive, Hamish Riach addressed the Governance and Administration Select Committee of Parliament, speaking to Council’s latest written submission on the WSE bill.

The amendment of the bill seeks to establish ten publicly owned water entities to provide three waters services in place of local authorities, as part of the Government’s Three Waters Reform Programme. The bill previously sought to establish four entities.

The Council’s submission and presentation reinforced Council’s and the community’s lack of confidence in the proposed move to a centralised model for water services. It highlighted concerns about the financial analysis the reforms are based on, how the new service would perform in emergency situations and how it would integrate with other local government reforms.

It also voiced significant unease at whether the new regime would allow local perspective to be heard on the provision of three water services (drinking water, wastewater and stormwater).

Deputy Mayor Liz McMillan said the loss of direct Council and community ownership remains a key concern for the Council.

“The new form of Council shareholding remains ownership in name only – the normal benefits and obligations of shareholding ownership are completely absent in the proposed model”.

“We’re also hugely disappointed in the removal of the reform funding regimes and hope to see these brought back in”.

“This reform is causing our staff and community to live through continued uncertainty, disruption and distraction”.

The Select Committee was urged by Council to pause the reform programme until after the 2023 national election and then delay the overall reforms for up to five years to allow the new water regulator, Taumata Arawai and councils to work together. It suggested that if changes were still required after this time, then a regionalised approach with a greater level of local input and decision making could be considered.

The Council has already committed to meeting the new standards set by Taumata Arawai by making its largest ever investment into drinking water and wastewater upgrades through its Long-Term Plan 2021-31.

“Council continues to be disappointed in the government’s unwillingness to engage on a solution which incorporates the ideas presented through the Communities 4 Local Democracy (C4LD) alternative 10-point Three Waters reform plan”.

The Ashburton District Council’s submission on the amendment bill can be viewed here.