Water services changes now law, amended to 10 entities

Controversial changes to who controls Gisborne’s water infrastructure will become law but the National Party promises to scrap the changes within 100 days if it wins October’s General Election.

This week, Parliament passed The Water Services Entities Amendment Bill which changes the Water Services Entities Act 2022.

“Moving from water services being run by 67 councils to 10 water services entities means the new entities will have the increased size required to access more funding and improve management of water services. This is how we will ultimately save Kiwi households cash,” Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said.

“Under the reforms, households are projected to save up to $2770–$5400 per year by 2054 on average, depending on which region they are in.”

The Government estimates that the per-year cost to households could reduce from $16,700 for Gisborne and $20,860 for Wairoa, to $4010 for each.

“Importantly, the reforms remove the water-related debt off councils’ balance sheets (balance sheet separation) — relieving councils of the burden of servicing this debt and the need to fund future investment in our water infrastructure. This helps limit future rates increases.”

Once implemented, water services assets, liabilities including debt and other interests currently held by councils in each entity service area will transfer to the water services entity and in turn councils within each area will collectively own the water service entity on behalf of their communities.

However, “balance-sheet separation” means while councils will own the assets, they will not be able to borrow against capital value or revenue streams.

A Gisborne District Council submission on the proposals recently stated it found aspects of the reforms “very disturbing”.

Yesterday, the council responded to the news of the bill being passed with a statement saying “Gisborne District Council is still working through the implications of the Act”.

National’s East Coast electorate candidate Dana Kirkpatrick said, as previously stated, the party believed communities have already paid for the infrastructure and owned it.

“Communities know what works for them. And there is no doubt that communities like ours will need some help in the future.

“That’s why the National Government will return these assets to the community and work with them on infrastructure deficits.

“It is also inherently irresponsible to set up extra bureaucratic enterprises to run these 10 entities at a cost of millions of dollars when we are in a cost-of-living crisis and suffering the effects of high inflation.

“Our region is in a very difficult time and these sideshows do nothing to help us recovery from nine natural disasters in the past few years.

“It would be much more useful to see some leadership on cyclone recovery than slamming legislation through before an election.”