Rejigged water plan just as unacceptable

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: More local voice in Govt’s new water services plan, April 13 editorial.
Whatever way you dress it up, this so called restructuring is really nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The most contentious parts of the original plan remain and because they do, my guess is that the bill will be just as unacceptable as the first effort.
The main concerns listed by a majority of local authorities (particularly ones that service vast underpopulated districts like Tairawhiti where economies of scale are impossible to deliver) have been identified as:
1) Fear of losing autonomy over decision-making that will affect local residents. Being lumped in with Hawke’s Bay, that has traditionally regarded Wairoa as part of their fiefdom, isn’t much better than the original plan. We will be the poor relations when the largesse is dished out.
2) It would appear that there will be little change to the co-governance structure that is seen by many as a thinly veiled takeover of the nation’s water resources by a minority group whose voice at the oversight table will be out of all proportion to the numerical strength of the groups they represent.
I would anticipate that this rejigged imposter will be rejected a second time by all those who didn’t have faith in the first version, for much the same reasons. It is an insult to pretend that this rehashing is the result of listening to those who made submissions.
If the councils don’t have the guts to tell Government that they should forget the whole thing, then the people will make it clear at the next election.
Clive Bibby