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:
-
- 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.
Good fuckin job, so these Boomers & Property owning wanks are going to get double tapped & hammered by Luxons fucknuckle coalition of clowns because the Councils are going to have to pass those costs onto the Ratepayers so you’ll see Rate rises of over 30% for Land rates because this backward Natzi Govt has removed the Fuel Taxes that kept Rate rises in check & now with their sabotage of 3 waters, the Water bills are going into the stratosphere, the entire Country will end up like Wellington with it’s 3rd World Water infrastructure but what do you expect from the National Party, they revert to type every time they get back into Govt & they are the reason why no infrastructure ever gets built or future proofed because these arseholes only think short term & only care about enriching their Rich elites? You gotta laugh at their ineptitude,bahahaha you stupid fucken NZ Morons, you voted for the Nat/Winston First & Atlas Act Party & you broke it, you own it because you have got the Govt you deserve by voting these Poltical arsonists into Govt & now you have to deal with the consequences because its going to cost you more money, a helluva lot more? Oh & because National has inflated the House Asset prices so that your Property is worth more, you rates are going to increase further because the rating system dictates that the higher the valuation of your House, the higher your rates, how delicious! Enjoy the next 3 yrs under these knuckle dragging Rightwing Apes you MUGS & SUCKERS! Martyn & everyone who never voted for this Coalition of C**ts is laughing at your foolishness & stupidity, you voted for the most corrupt, pay for play, bought off Rightwing Govt in the History of this Country, the Alan Gibbs Family Rightwing Think Tank Govt of Luxon, Peters & Seymour, the Trinity of Neoliberal scumbags so suck on those sour Apples you dumb bastards!
100%
@ Antfoce62.
What you said. Fucking brilliant stuff.
Plus 1000 to that.
Let the fools cry.
Er rates go up, your rent goes up.
Didn’t think that through did you?
And what’s it with hating on property owners, or it’s it just ‘I hate anyone who has more than me’?
People who can’t afford rent increases, move out. Property owners left to pay… never thought that through did you Big Guffaw. No one hates all property owners, just the greedy ones. Are you one of them BG?. Given your defense of them I’d say so.
Where do they move to?
And calling anyone who owns a home “Property owning wanks” sounds like someone does hate property owners.
Btw not guilty at all, why should anyone owning a property feel guilty?
Somewhere cheaper duh!
Property owners shouldn’t feel guilty, only the greedy ones, how do struggle to comprehend this? Unless you support them of course.
Antforce, amazing sum up of what we are in for. These Neoliberal Mongrels should get the same treatment as any other traitor, but always remember NEW ZEALANDERS VOTED FOR THEM.
Get your headphones on people, when the next years Rates Demands hit the letterboxes we will hear the outbursts of rage, whining, and despair.
Time to wake up morons, because Luxon, Peters, and Seymour haven’t finished with us yet. Gibbs, Big Tobacco and the rest of the evil donors want their pound of flesh NOW!!.
I guess the next three years are going to be unforgettable.
Well it’s not f’ing funny if you own a house in Auckland and didn’t want the fuel tax cut and had no issue with three waters. I am not stupid enough to think you aren’t going to pay either way.
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.
There is one other little thing I’d like to point out. Nothing really.
There is a vast gap between those who earn our money, as an over all concept, and those who don’t but do like to spend it. Aye Boys? I.e. Auckland. How?
As the truth withers the bullshit plant life that flourishes within the very, very leafy suburbs of Remuera etc there must be means deployed to make sure those truths wither on the vine, especially in these truths and facts based times. No longer is politicians getting pissed with news paper editors the fashion dahlings.
Farmers earn our livelihood. They must, we have no one nor nothing else.
They tried to shove tourists head first through the drafting races to be laundered but it only took a bit of a flu to fuck that. And yet, our economy improved during covid. Funny that.
RNZ
How tourist hot spot Queenstown is surviving the lockdown
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/413045/how-tourist-hot-spot-queenstown-is-surviving-the-lockdown
The real reason behind Three Waters is because it’s divisive. [It] divides Maori and urban people against non Maori, specifically between Maori and farmers. Remember, farmers earn our money and yes, I know, many farmers are also Maori but that means fuck all in the broader greed based racism context. This ‘Three Waters’ thing is designed to cause division and disunity in order to fracture any multi-lateral cohesion which might make the ownership of AO/NZ to pass from our hands to private individuals a difficulty. I.e. Leading to a civil war.
When one thinks of it, Three Waters reeks of roger douglas.
Another long winded piece saying nothing but you managed to get in reference to Roger Douglas. I am betting you have a dart board with his face on it .You missed out on blaming the banks this time.
National have saved us from losing control of our water .Now perhaps Chch can go back to chlorine free tap water.
Trevor the cheerleader, define control. Councils will more likely be forced to amalgamate in regions, which will involve separate entities being created and you will be losing “control” anyway.
It will still be local control not Wellington control
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.
Hahaha, now where has that be tried before? Hmmm let me think.
And where has privatization of water infrastructure worked? One example will be fine thanks.
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!
Stupid prevails yet again in the comments section of the TDB it’s astonishing.
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