Kieran McAnulty slams Govt’s Three Waters repeal
Labour is warning the repeal and replacement of its water services reforms will lead to rates rises across the country.
The Government announced yesterday it is set to repeal Labour’s Affordable Water Reform – previously known as Three Waters – by 23 February.
In mid-2024 it will introduce a bill to streamline requirements to set up council-controlled organisations (CCOs), allowing councils to band together and form organisations to achieve balance sheet separation. The CCOs could then borrow more than what councils could do individually.
By mid-2025, it will pass legislation to set out the long-term requirements for financial sustainability, as well as regulatory backstop powers.
Oh Nationals response is so much worse than we originally thought.
By refusing to go guarantor, these new water assets won’t get be able to get any bond investors on board, a point Bernard Hickey hammers home in his criticism…
The holes in National’s water reform pipes
In essence, the Government doesn’t want to take the blame for new water charges or the risk of having to promise bailouts of any new entities. It also doesn’t want to stump up any of the $180 billion of capital needed in the coming years because it wants to keep Government debt low to keep mortgage rates as low as possible.
The lack of new funding and a government guarantee, which Watercare has said is essential to avoid a doubling of water charges, puts the onus on councils to:
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- carve off their water assets to merge them with neighbouring councils after debates over ‘fair’ exchanges of pipes and debt;
- install water meters and hike water charges in the teeth of ratepayer opposition; and,
- convince bond investors and ratings agencies to lend to them without a Crown guarantee at low enough interest rates to make the tens of billions of investment viable.
…National smashed 3 waters because the right sold it as ‘Māoris stealing da water’ and they are implementing a user pays water system that will crucify domestic kiwis and see rates jump over 15%.
Watching rednecks being price gouged for water because they got tricked into believing ‘Māoris are stealing da water’ is just so beautiful isn’t it?
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I guess if financial interests are a major backer of your party then arranging water reform so that they get a higher margin on any loans would seem like a good idea, take from the many poor and give to the few at the top is their standard operating procedure
Right, their donors would prefer that literally everything be privatised somehow.
But like all of the nation’s crumbling Third World infrastructure — that started going backwards in the 1950’s, it should be pointed out — the main reason for most of that decline was under-taxation. Cuts in real terms to council rates, and the reductions to the income tax and company tax, were all unaffordable. Well, unless you like living in a backward country, that is.
Well said antforce and we know national are a bunch of cheap skates who talk up investment and yet buy secondhand ferries and do cheap patch up jobs that come back to bite them and those effected in the bum. Some of our councils deserve everything they get, they did not bother to ask the new government what their alternative 3 waters plan was, everything about the new government wreaks of cheap and nasty.
Councils have to take their share of responsibility for this debacle. In Dunedin it has been obvious for years that the DCC will spend money on just about anything except pipes. Three waters effectively gave councils a get out of jail free card at the expense of ratepayers. Had they gone ahead with it, it would have been interesting to see if councils could restrain themselves from annual rates increases of 5-15%. Somehow I doubt it.
…because the Councils are going to have to pass those costs onto the Ratepayers…
As someone on TDB pointed out a while back any costs incurred to ratepayers are ultimately passed on to tenants. But anyway @ Antforce62 aren’t water bills paid separately by tenants. At least where I live. Everyone will be paying.
Yes, all this bullshit rhetoric about the maaris stealing the water when we have proprietary water rights and many dumb NZers fell for all of this. And now local councils will have to cough up, some of the redneck councils cried like babies, let’s hope these mayors get the boot from their rate payers as these council have done them a disservice.
Especially that Cardogan ‘Cardongo’, Clutha mayor, what a hypocrite.
Here is what we have been left with after years and years of trying to get into the 3 Waters via that stupid selfish council. The corruption and game playing here makes us sick. Literally.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/2tBMTFDxCyDqMDrM/?mibextid=oFDknk
Thank god for Ingid Leary trying to help us here!
Well said antforce and we know national are a bunch of cheap skates who talk up investment and yet buy secondhand ferries and do cheap patch up jobs that come back to bite them and those effected in the bum. Some of our councils deserve everything they get, they did not bother to ask the new government what their alternative 3 waters plan was, everything about the new government wreaks of cheap and nasty.
We really needed 3 waters, so as to entrench public ownership of water infrastructure in this country. It was going pull in a lot of small schemes. Should have pulled in the irrigation scheme as well. Public ownership of the means of production is the only way forward.
wankers that think water meter fix water leaks need to go see a shrink for fucks sake .All water meters do is make it easy for council to see how much water they have not been able to charge for because it leaked out of the pipes before it got to the meter
I was against Chch having them as there are a lot of multiple meters that can be charged for but it showed we had big leak that we did not know about .We fixed the leak and the charge was reversed so win win .
Doesn’t matter whether it’s council controlled organisation or iwi controlled organisation, the neoliberal fix is in. The water organization is going to be loaded up with debt. Then the ratepayers will be told they can’t afford the interest and forget about the longterm revenue which is in their interest. Then the brand new assets will be firesaled to a foreign water corporation. The corporation will finance the purchase and the rate payer will pay that interest too. Interest slaves.
You’ve summed it up nicely joseph. That’s what’s planned.
Have you got it now Trevor and others?
Read joseph’s comment again slowly and take it in.
We will be paying, with interest, to use our own water. We won’t even be paying other NZders. It’ll will be foreigners and the clueless dopes among us will have made it possible.
The rush to meddle with the ToW is not about equality. It is to remove the last small stumbling block to this foreign buy-out.
If you believe either Mr. Seymour or Mr. Luxon, your gullibility knows no bounds. They are the real estate agents for these sales.
All the dumb pricks that voted this government in deserve the highest rates increases.
Setting the stage for privatisation. Stupid Labour, stupid Nanaia – if only they had left co governance out of it!
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