National have released their 3 Waters and it’s a blocked gutter.
It’s weird that National have spent this long attacking 3 Waters and in the end have even less detail than Labour to offer up as a solution!
Claire Trevett (who is hardly a card carrying member of the Communist Party) is rightfully scathing of the lack of any actual detail in National’s 3 Waters policy…
Claire Trevett: National’s counter policy to Labour’s Three Waters carries big question marks
Quite what National was thinking in releasing its version of a Three Waters policy without addressing the costs or the impact on ratepayers is baffling.
After years of criticising Labour for its Three Waters reforms and promising to repeal it, National has finally shown what it would do instead.
Leader Christopher Luxon prefaced it by saying the status quo was not an option.
The policy he then announced was the status quo with belts and braces added – and some very large questions marks dangling off it.
…this is the Taxpayers Union emailing me to joyfully point out what National is proposing is just Taxpayers Union policy…
…so this is Taxpayers Union policy being adopted by National because National are funded by the Agricultural sector and still have MPs who don’t believe the science of climate change?
Trevett continues her attack…
National’s solution appeared to be more of a political response to try to capitalise on the backlash to Labour’s plan than a considered look at what was actually needed and what would work.
It scratched all the itches people had objected most loudly to in Labour’s reforms.
…exactly!
This isn’t a political solution from National, it’s a political stunt!
It edges water closer to an unchecked user pays model (something Labour’s attempts to avoid) and doesn’t answer how these new water entities will be funded and this claim local knows best is clearly failing as these water alerts attest to..
Nearly every beach in Auckland unsafe to swim at after another deluge
On Auckland Council’s Safeswim website only three beaches in Auckland are safe to swim in. The majority of the beaches in the region have been deemed unsafe to swim at by the council because they have been affected by wastewater overflow.
As of Saturday, over 30 beaches have been issued a black water droplet, the highest warning the Auckland Council can issue, and people are advised not to swim in those areas.
…National is offering a blocked gutter that isn’t costed but allows unchecked user pays while the pollution their Farmer mates cause keeps getting pissed into our water sources…
Whose job is it to warn of the risk of nitrates in pregnancy?
The tiny South Canterbury settlement of Glenavy made headlines for all the wrong reasons in late 2022, when Greenpeace and Otago University researchers determined the levels of nitrate in one of the Waimate District township’s water supplies were the highest they had seen in a registered water supply anywhere in New Zealand.
Water in the Lower Waihao and Waikakahi East rural scheme breached the government’s Maximum Acceptable Value (MAV) for nitrates in August 2022, topping 50 mg/L nitrate (11.3 mg/L nitrate nitrogen) and leaving around 615 households to rely on trucked-in tanks of water for four months.
The local and regional councils pointed to a “significant rain event” the month before as the cause. Waimate District Council signalled its expectation levels would not lower unless dentrification technology was added to a treatment plant, which was expected to come online in mid-2023.
But at the start of December, it announced nitrate levels had dropped to 38mg/L nitrate (NO3) (equivalent to 8.36 mg/L nitrate-nitrogen NO3-N) and the water was deemed “safe to consume”.
…Trevett continues her attack…
It was called Local Water Done Well. But it did not say how much doing local water well might cost compared to Labour’s way – and hence how much ratepayers might expect to bear of that burden.
The only comment on the cost was to dispute that it would cost as much as the $185 billion figure Labour had been using to justify its Three Waters plan.
It was vague on how it would be paid for, although it did at least require councils to set out how they would pay it, whether through water charges or debt – and to ring-fence that revenue.
That leaves National very vulnerable to claims its idea will result in steep rates increases or high water bills.
If National hasn’t got the numbers at its disposal, they can be damned sure Labour will soon work out a version for them.
When that happens, National risks being left not only with a credibility problem but offside with ratepayers – who are also voters.
…this again feels flatfooted from National.
National had no plan to deal with Jacinda stepping down and because all they were doing was coasting on the wave of toxic Jacinda hate to win the election, they had no immediate solution to Chippy and he stole the agenda back.
Likewise their 3 Waters announcement, it’s just reheated Taxpayers Union policy brought up while their angry reactionary voters still remember to be angry about co-governance.
National have no answer here because they still don’t know what the question is.
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Every type of player in the Three Waters debate – councils, MPs, Ministers, journalists, and RATEPAYERS – are all pretending there is some magic money tree that will pay for the upgrades and it won’t be paid for by ratepayers or taxpayers…
The NACT will pave the way for privatization what a “shambles “
if they hadn’t been creeping around ‘property owners’ for 20yrs some if the infrastructure may have been fixed…but no pollies fear of ‘ratepayers'(we all pay rates even renters buying their landlords properties for them, it’s factored into rents) meant years of little/no investment and it’s coming home to rooost ada….there’s no such thing as a free lunch even for homeowners and property speculators
“there’s no such thing as a free lunch even for homeowners and property speculators…”
No-one in Parliaments for the past 40 years has had the courage to tell them that.
Absolute shambles Martyn. If this is what we can expect from the National party we are screwed. More if the same that got us here in the first place.
At least less management cost and centralisation and racial division in Nationals 3 Waters.
At the end of the day, how has centralisation ever bought cost down or improved services, look at Auckland Supercity (higher rates from Natz/ACT), the new polytech, education, housing and health reforms (Labour, everything worse in both services and costs for all).
At least under council control you can move districts if the councils fuck up or introduce stupid policy.
The approach by National is open not a hidden agenda like Labour.
We can trust National, we can never trust this Labour Government who have misled us for over 5 years.
What’s that Bob? ‘Local water gone to hell’. Is that the transparent bit?
No Bob it opens up the councils water infrastructure to private enterprise, now tell me whats open and transparent and not a hidden agenda about that.
This should be Labour’s policy, but with one major addition: we will ban the privatisation of water, and ban water charges for residences.
If the government can’t pay for such basic maintenance of infrastructure, clearly taxes are too low. Since they have run everything into the ground, they may need to levy a one-time wealth tax on high income earners — which could also be used to wipe out the national debt (the ‘Trump Debt Plan’).
Kristoff – how would you work out such a wealth tax? Those holding wealth and those having high incomes are not necessarily the same people (i.e.) a neurosurgeon earning $250k or more (the blogs favourite earnings where people should be taxed more). The neurosurgeon may have no wealth at all because of carrying debt for training and lost years of income training to the level they are on now. So how will the IRD determine wealth? Will every individual have to be examined that they consider may be wealthy to actually see that they have wealth? This will require an army of more civil servants to the point it becomes too cumbersome. Of course there could always be the Greens definition of wealthy – $1m. Up until recently, simply owning a freehold house in some parts of the country made you a millionaire….
A couple of things:
1). Claire Trevett is known as Red Claire. If it was Fran O’Sullivan you would have a point but Claire definitely tilts left.
2). Swimsafe don’t test the beaches. It is run off a computer algorithm and has been consistently proven to be flawed at multiple beaches and times when compared with a physical test. Must of been designed by Shaun Hendy. Trust their advice with a grain of salt.
I wouldn’t worry about Te Reo. He will stumble and bumble along like any good woke corporate womble. People will vote for him on the basis of being the most digestible turd burger on the market.
There is only so much gas lighting Hipkins and Wood can throw out with regards to the East Coast and Hawkes Bay before the truth becomes insurmountable. At some point New Zimbabwe will have to face facts that we can’t fix the flood ravaged areas added to large scale economic stagflation. That ain’t Te Reo’s problem – that is Hipkins’ problem. All at a time when Robertson has pissed 100B against the CovidCult wall.
Interesting about Swimsafe, only in NZ do they do computer algorithms but then fail to constantly check if they are accurate when things change with real tests. Shaun Hendy is not a computer engineer.
Big NZ problem with a lack of interest in expertise, they don’t even know they have. Even in the UK the government understood to get real expertise to track data during covid, but in NZ they just get ex CEO from Air NZ, or someone woke they know who has an unrelated science or engineering degree, or someone who knew someone at Xero and works at the ministry. Computer Science is very specific – users need certification and there are radically different levels of expertise.
Save yourselves people, computers are only as good as those who design and interpret them and the accuracy of data they have.
Poor and inaccurate outcomes in NZ are the norm with social policy, government and councils. AKA flood algorithms that failed to be accurate because they relied on old data that was never updated constantly, and checked, such as increased permeability in areas or adding climate data that is breaking new records!
Just another 100 Billion dollar problem that could have been lessened or avoided by better data and experts who understand it.
“People will vote for him on the basis of being the most digestible turd burger on the market.”
Quote of the year so far.
Thanks for the giggle Frank I needed one!
So you can now see the neoliberal green eyed monster in both these neoliberal partys. They see money in this! Billions of dollars to be made!
$185b to $400b+ is just such a ‘life changing’ scheme not to pass up!
Imagine if you could stack the board with friends, family and associates. You could milk this puppy for decades!
Thats why Labour and the Nats wont give it up. Greed!
only the 1st item will ever be honoured by the nats cos moari, which is ironic as the nats would be 1st to sell off consolidated water resources…but the racism is strong in the nats.
the other items will be quitely forgotten
Belts and braces! Sounds like Christopher Luxon in a suspender belt; black and lacy might be tasteful.
It’s gonna go down a treat with a large chunk of the population. Not the TDB usual suspects of course, but ordinary kiwis who quietly express their views from the safety of a voting booth. Why? Simple, National have taken out the ‘Mahuta’ factor ie. money has to be accounted for (OMG!!!), must be spent of pipes and filters and is not allowed to be spent on fucking expensive ‘Entities'(Whaaaaaaat, what about all the management positions????). It’s a vote winner – Labour wish their scheme would look like it, because now they have to basically undo theirs to make it semi palatable.
I wonder kraut will they be so willing to vote for water privatization and or have massive increases in their rates will it be the un costed winner with the so called voting quiet majority. Or as John Key said show me the money , oh sorry that might have been Tom Cruise