Of the more than 20,000 water permits on issue throughout the country, 41 are for the bottling of fresh water, and a further 30 are for multiple purposes including water bottling. Only 23 water bottling permits are said to be currently in use.
Last year, bottled water exports accounted for nine million litres, 0.0001 per cent of total annual fresh water use.
Like any other business, water bottling companies contribute to the wider economy through processing, packaging and transport, not to mention employing staff, leasing premises, paying rates and so on. None of that gets mentioned in this debate.
Since fresh water falls naturally, and is essential for life, it is regarded at law as a public good resource that must be available to all.
Accordingly, under common law and statute, all fresh water is vested in the Crown and cannot be privately owned. Land owners may have rights to the beds and banks of rivers, streams and lakes that lie on their properties, but they don't own the water.
Users can be charged for permits to take water, and councils can charge for cost of filtering, pumping, piping and treating it.
The reality is that the present water debate is politically motivated.
New Zealanders are being manipulated by activist groups running well-orchestrated mass hysteria campaigns to introduce a tax on the commercial use of water, a move that suits Maori interests, since any charge on water will open the door to new taxpayer-funded Treaty settlements and water royalties in perpetuity.
At the heart of this debate is Maori rights to own and control fresh water. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark understood this only too well, when, in 2006, iwi leaders, believing that Labour was planning to introduce a charge on water, demanded a Treaty settlement.
To her credit, Helen Clark unilaterally rejected their demands, upholding the strong position taken by successive governments, that water is controlled and managed by the Crown for all New Zealanders.
However, under Jacinda Ardern's leadership, Labour's principled stand against Maori claims for the ownership of water has been sidelined, and if she were in government the Treaty of Waitangi gravy train would start up again.
Labour would introduce a charge, to be determined after the election, on water bottlers and other commercial users of water, with royalties shared between regional councils and Maori. The lack of transparency is revealing, especially since it's householders who will foot the bill through higher prices for food and anything produced using water.
The Greens are also refusing to reveal the level of their proposed tax on commercial users until after the election, although they have specified that bottlers will pay 10 cents a litre on all domestic sales and another 10 cents a litre on all exports. Half of all royalties would be paid to Maori, a decision they justify by saying,
"The Waitangi Tribunal has found on numerous occasions that Maori did not cede sovereignty of natural resources through the Treaty of Waitangi... Revenue would also be directed to mana whenua in recognition that they have Article 2 rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and kaitiaki responsibilities for water."
National's updated National Policy Statement on Freshwater elevates Maori spiritualism and rights over water to new levels through statutory obligations imposed on local councils: "Upholding Te Mana o te Wai acknowledges and protects the mauri of the water.
This requires that in using water you must also provide for Te Hauora o te Taiao (the health of the environment), Te Hauora o te Wai (the health of the waterbody) and Te Hauora o te Tangata (the health of the people). Te Mana o te Wai incorporates the values of tangata whenua and the wider community in relation to each water body."
National ceded to iwi demands when they introduced their Mana Whakahono a Rohe provisions, that will be used to effect Maori control of fresh water, into the RMA, without any consultation at all with the wider public.
Once National's Technical Advisory Group reports back, Maori will be elevated to co-govern and control fresh water decision-making in New Zealand, in conjunction with councils.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says they are opposed to race-based policies, but their website states: "Maori have shared guardian status, and therefore have a right to shared governance in some areas of water management ... The proposed National Policy Statement on Water Resource Uses must be developed following a comprehensive process of engagement with Maori for the purpose of meeting their cultural values as far as possible."
With ACT pushing for tradeable water rights, irrespective of any consequential Treaty claim, and the Maori Party in favour of Maori ownership and control of fresh water, it seems that New Zealanders who want decisions over the allocation of fresh water to remain in the hands of democratically-elected councillors, rather than vested interest Maori groups, have no champions at all in Parliament.
