• That affordability remains crucial.
• To establish WSE governance structures with urgency.
• Timing of Gisborne’s transition to the new system around cyclone recovery efforts.
• The issue of transition funding and support.
Council specials projects manager Yvette Kinsella, replying to a question from Councillor Tony Robinson, said no funding was available for the establishment of WSEs.
WSEs were meant to be self-funding but could not start billing until they were established, she said.
Cr Larry Foster was the first to complain about the lack of detail.
“There is still so much cloud.”
Gisborne had just gone through Cyclone Gabrielle where flood control had been flawed, which had led to an environmental mess.
Where were the solutions, under the Three Waters umbrella, for issues such as having a bigger pipe capacity and better rural drainage?
Cr Foster said the Government “don’t know what’s happening on the ground, obviously”.
“They say Three Waters will be a better system — prove it.”
Council director of lifelines David Wilson said the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and the country’s local bodies were still working out the stormwater issue.
Cr Foster had raised a contentious matter.
Local issues included rural schemes and the levels of service which needed to be reviewed after Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We don’t know what we don’t know yet”.
DIA was working frantically to iron out the issues and such details were needed for staff to give councillors detailed advice on the implications of legislation.
“We are trying to give you as much as we know which is very little.”
Staff were waiting for details on how the 10 WSEs would look, before giving detailed advice on matters such as the pros and cons of joining a WSE sooner, or later, Mr Wilson said.
Cr Aubrey Ria said she preferred Gisborne District Council joining their WSE later, to learn from the experiences of other councils.
Cr Debbie Gregory said she was “really opposed” to someone other than the WSE, probably council, collecting water payments as they would be deemed by many to be responsible for the water service.
Everything related to Three Waters could possibly be changed after the election.
She felt sorry for council staff.
Ms Kinsella said that if Gisborne joined their WSE later rather than early, Cr Gregory’s concern about council being deemed responsible for water services was unlikely to arise.
Other government changes include:
• Deferral of establishment dates of the 10 WSEs to at least early 2025.
• Staggering of establishment dates for individual WSEs with a final, “hard” establishment date of July 1, 2026 for all WSEs.
• Strengthening of local voice in WSEs with the inclusion of a representative from all territorial authorities within a WSE on the Regional Representative Group with 50 percent matching representation from mana whenua.
The make-up of the five mana whenua representatives will be decided by mana whenua across the entire region known as Entity F.
Cr Nick Tupara expressed concern with mana whenua representation.
Tairāwhiti did not have mana whenua identity, he said.
The rohe was iwi-based and hapu-based.
“That is the significant way in which we distribute our cultural contributions back to our community,” he said.
Another part of the Government reset is that Three Waters Tranche 2 “Better Off” Funding of $21.62m for Gisborne (and other councils) had been cancelled.
It had not yet been decided what that funding would have been used for.
