Watercare agreed additional payments of $20m related to its water take from the Waikato River, without the knowledge of ratepayers. Photo / Ben Plummer
Watercare has quietly agreed to $20 million worth of payments, negotiated with iwi, which some ratepayers say secure only vague benefits for water services customers.
In December last year, Watercare, the Auckland Council-controlled water services provider, signed an “agreement relating to relationship matters” with Waikato-Tainui’s governing council, Te Whakakitenga o Waikato Inc.
The document commits Watercare to the payment of $1m per year for 20 years, to fund water-related research and environmental projects in the lower Waikato River and catchment, which is the rohe (territory) of Waikato-Tainui.
The agreement was released to the newsletter Trans Tasman last month, under the provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA).
The payment schedule was linked to Watercare’s recently won permission to increase its abstracting of water from the Waikato River – in January 2022, following a period of extreme drought, it won consent to draw up to 150 million litres a day for 20 years to provide drinking water to several Waikato towns and to Auckland.
However, the agreement was not disclosed to the public; and the payments it provides for are in addition to considerable environmental payments already agreed to by Watercare in 2022, as a condition of the consent (granted by an Environmental Protection Authority Board of Inquiry).
The consent stipulates that Watercare pay $2m per year for 20 years to the Waikato River Clean-Up Trust, controlled by the Waikato River Authority, which is co-governed by the iwi of the region and the Crown. The funding is for river clean-up and related projects.
“Waikato-Tainui liaison” is also a condition of the consent, including provision for a “Tangata Whenua Liaison Group”. The condition provides for the “reasonable costs” of two kaitiaki advisors (guardians) to monitor the Watercare water take and related infrastructure; beyond that, no financial obligation is set out.
The issue of Auckland’s reliance on water drawn from the Waikato River has become increasingly fraught in recent years. Waikato-Tainui holds that it has more rights and interests in freshwater than either councils or the Crown recognise (other iwi hold similar views). And Auckland, unwilling to make express and expensive payment for taking water (the Crown holds that free-flowing freshwater is a public good and not owned) has, nevertheless, begun to offer sizable payments for river care in a effort to mitigate the cultural effects on iwi of its use of the river, to foster goodwill and, it hopes, to secure future support for its water-related consent applications.
The lower Waikato River is relatively polluted (compared to the upper river); higher bacteria levels, for example, result from factors including storm water runoff, especially through the city of Hamilton, farm discharges, and old or inadequate sewage treatment.
Tuku Morgan, chair of Te Arataura, the executive entity for Waikato-Tainui, was out of the office and uncontactable, according to a spokesman, and unable to respond to the Herald’s questions.
The 2022 Board of Inquiry decision accepted that, for the iwi of its catchment, the Waikato River is spiritually, physically and culturally important, and for Waikato-Tainui, the river represents a living ancestor. The Waikato River Settlement Act of 2010 outlines the tribe’s special relationship with the river.
Waikato-Tainui wants Watercare to reduce its reliance on the Waikato River for water; notwithstanding that, the iwi also aims to obtain up to 25 million litres a day of drinking water from Watercare (an aspiration articulated in the December 2023 agreement).
The 2022 consent pushed Watercare’s total take from the Waikato River to up to 300 million litres a day. Watercare’s take is drawn at a large treatment plant near Tuakau, in the lower reaches of the river, close to the sea.
Sam Warren, spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance, said he was concerned that the agreement was “deliberately kept secret”.
“Ratepayers deserve transparency on issues involving this sort of money, especially when the cost-to-benefit for such a transaction remains murky at best,” Warren said.
“Watercare needs to be up front as to why it felt the need to keep the additional $20m payment under wraps. Every ratepayer dollar spent should be readily defendable...”
The Ratepayers Alliance is linked to the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
Asked about the additional and secret agreement between Watercare and Waikato Tainui, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s office said in a statement it was “an operational matter” between Watercare and Tainui. “However, the mayor fully expects Watercare to address the concerns raised.”
Watercare responded to the Herald’s questions with an emailed statement. It said that the parties “mutually agreed” that no press release would be issued regarding the agreement of December 2023. Though asked why, it provided no reason for this decision.
It noted that Watercare and Waikato-Tainui have a long history, and that the 2023 agreement updated a 2020 agreement between the parties, which also outlined a desire to work together.
The 2020 agreement was made public, but it contained no financial undertakings.
Watercare said the parties considered that it was appropriate to revisit the nature of their relationship and the priorities after the water consent was granted in 2022.
The additional $20m is to be paid to the Waikato Raupatu River Trust, which is governed by Te Whakakitenga.
A joint working group comprised equally of Watercare and Tainui representatives will produce a five-year spending plan, the agreement says. And spending will cover Waikato River water quality research and related projects that mitigate the effects of taking water.
The agreement also notes the funds will be used to pay for a “Waikato-Tainui Watercare relationship manager whose primary responsibility is to assist the working group and oversight group carry out their responsibilities under this agreement”.
The December document articulates a catalogue of both Tainui and Watercare desired outcomes.
Among Tainui’s aspirations is the aim to obtain up to 25 million litres per day of potable water on terms to be agreed (Watercare said no agreement has been reached); in addition, the iwi wants a reduction in Auckland’s reliance on the Waikato River for municipal water supply, and an increase in reliance on alternative sources, such as purified recycled water.
The iwi also hopes to become involved in Watercare’s new or existing water infrastructure projects – through investment, co-investment or through Watercare’s procurement.
Watercare said the only progress made on this aim is that, earlier this year, it set up a supplier panel of Māori-owned businesses, as part of its $3.5 billion asset renewal and upgrade programme.
“When we were assembling the panel, we let Waikato-Tainui know, in case any of their iwi businesses were interested in participating in the selection process. We did the same with our other iwi partners,” the Watercare statement said.
The document also notes that Watercare “desires and anticipates” Waikato-Tainui’s support for any consents Watercare applies for within the tribe’s rohe – Watercare’s original consent for water from the Waikato River (also up to 150 million litres a day) expires in May 2032. It also listed anticipated support from Tainui for its Hunua consents (Mangatangi Dam), which expire in 2035, and consents for the Upper Mangatawhiri Dam, which expire in 2047.
Kate MacNamara is a South Island-based journalist with a focus on policy, public spending and investigations. She spent a decade at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before moving to New Zealand. She joined the Herald in 2020.
OPINION: December is often the month in which we spend money like it’s confetti.