National’s 3 Waters becomes a blocked gutter

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

…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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