National's Water Done Well Will Cost Ratepayers More

When the National Party hastily announced its “Local Water Done Well” policy, they touted it as the great saviour of New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure. But as time goes by it's looking more and more like a planning and fiscal lame duck...and one that’s going to cost ratepayers far more than Labour’s much-maligned Three Waters plan ever would have.

National’s policy, unveiled with much fanfare by Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, promised to keep water assets in local hands while enforcing strict quality standards and financial sustainability. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But the devil’s in the details...or rather, the lack thereof.

By repealing the Three Waters legislation in February 2024, National scrapped a framework that, while imperfect, was designed to consolidate water services into ten publicly-owned entities. The cost? An estimated $120-$185 billion over 30 years to fix our ageing pipes, with households facing rates of $800-$1,640 by 2051, according to government sources.

Now, National’s alternative hands the problem back to councils, forcing them to create Water Services Delivery Plans by September 2025, at their own cost. These plans must ensure financial sustainability. However, there's a major problem: many councils are already at their debt ceilings and cannot borrow more. Without the borrowing capacity of Labour’s regional entities, they’re left with two grim options...hike rates or defer maintenance on already broken water infrastructure.

Labour’s Kieran McAnulty warned that National’s approach could see rate increases of up to 90% in some councils over 30 years, with ratepayers now footing the bill instead of taxpayers sharing the load through Three Waters’ government funding.

On Tuesday, the NZ Herald reported:

Kaipara council’s demise feared amid water reforms

Government plans for drinking water and wastewater services delivery could spell the end of Kaipara District Council, Mayor Craig Jepson says.

“That’s one of the fears.”

His comments come as Kaipara District Council (KDC) consults on the future of its water services.

Councils have until September 3 to confirm their regionally generated plans for managing drinking water and wastewater with the Government.

 

National’s claim that their plan avoids Labour’s “$3 billion blowout” is pure sleight of hand. The $1 billion increase in Three Waters’ establishment costs were a one-off, dwarfed by the long-term savings from economies of scale, streamlined procurement and long-term investment.

National’s policy, by contrast, fragments responsibility across 67 already cash-strapped councils, losing those economies of scale and ensuring Council's (through third parties) incur more debt, likely causing their credit ratings to be downgraded. That means interest on Council debt goes up, and so do rates.

Smaller districts like Kaipara, already struggling with $2,360 annual water costs, could see rates skyrocket to $8,690 by 2051 without reform. How is an elderly person receiving around $27,000 pension each year meant to afford that?

And don’t forget the $280,000 a day National accused Labour of spending on consultants...yet their own technical advisory group, chaired by Castalia’s Andreas Heuser, looks like another gravy train for National's troughing mates.

The real sting? National’s insistence on “local control” ignores the reality that councils have under-invested in water infrastructure for decades, leading to 35,000 Kiwis sickened each year by substandard water and even some people's deaths.

Labour’s plan, for all its co-governance controversies, aimed to centralise expertise and funding to tackle this crisis head-on. National’s patchwork approach risks leaving ratepayers drowning in costs while pipes keep on leaking.

In short, “Local Water Done Well” is a triumph of ideology over pragmatism. It's a stunt to make National look good while communities, mainly in the regions, continue to suffer from substandard water. National’s ditched a workable solution for a fragmented, expensive mess..a leaking mess that doesn't look like it's going to be fixed anytime soon.

National flounders over Three Waters reforms

Clearly the National Party thinks it’s onto a winner with its campaign against the Government's Three Waters legislation. They’ve even been promoting the current leader, Christopher Luxon (who in 2018 appeared to endorse the very same reforms he now opposes) with photo opportunities of him putting up anti Three Waters billboards.

The problem for National and Luxon in particular is that barely a week goes by without another report concerning sewage overflowing onto New Zealand streets or towns having to cope with unsafe tap water.

What Luxon doesn't seem to realise is that Kiwis have been getting very sick and even dying because of their contaminated drinking water. But instead of National providing any real policy ideas about how to actually fix things, Luxon is busy making a fool of himself by splashing out on stupid hoardings for an election that could still be 21 months away. In fact the blue "teams" promise to repeal Three Waters and effectively replace it with nothing is likely to turn away National's potential audience during the campaign proper.

That’s why the Labour Government and their Three Waters legislation will become the default choice for most voters. Not because it’s particularly imaginative or transformative, but because there isn't even a remote sign of the opposition providing any alternative policy to ensure people have adequate and safe water supplies.

Last Friday, RNZ reported:

National pledges to repeal three waters legislation if elected

National is stepping up its campaign against the government's contentious three waters legislation, as people fed up with a Canterbury town's dirty drinking water plead for a quick fix.

The Opposition party has nailed a billboard in the Waimakiriri district advertising its pledge to repeal the laws, under which the government would take control of drinking, waste and storm water services and assets from local councils.

In the neighbouring Selwyn district, water the colour of weak tea still runs from the taps in the town of Springfield.

A father, who did not want to be named, said the water was so discoloured his family had not filled a glass for months.

"You wouldn't boil it and drink it, it still remains tea-coloured. We've been drinking out of plastic bottles for months," he said.

 

Whilst their negative campaign might appeal to some farmers and a few of their drunken Councillor mates, it’s unlikely to elicit much if any significant support from the wider community. This is because the vast majority of Kiwis realise that something needs to be done about our dilapidated water infrastructure.

Why do we need to do this?

1. Drinking Water

35000 NZers get sick from tap water every year

20% of water is lost on its way to houses (leaky pipes)

2016 in Havelock North: 5500 people (39% of residents) became sick with bacteria in tap water
45 were hospitalised
3 died

2/8

— Moira 🇳🇿 (@moirathemaori) April 9, 2022

By claiming that cash strapped Councils will suddenly do their jobs properly if the public campaigns for improved water infrastructure, Luxon has badly misread the room. Not only is he choosing another hill to die on, the optics of Luxon promoting a do nothing strategy while there are reports of unsafe tap water making people unwell is terribly revealing. In fact it's a misstep of monumental proportions.

If Luxon and his advisors cannot even keep up to date with current affairs, particularly when we're talking about the health and wellbeing of the population, how exactly can they be trusted to run the entire country? The obvious answer is that they aren't an effective or trustworthy opposition and wouldn't be an effective or trustworthy government either.