Auckland mayoral candidate Wayne Brown on Three Waters reforms: 'Just dumb'

Auckland Mayoral candidate Wayne Brown says the Three Water reforms are just dumb. Photo / Dean Purcell

The Government's decision to model the Three Water reforms on Scotland is "dumb", Auckland mayoral candidate and infrastructure engineer Wayne Brown says.

He said the reason the Government has decided to roll water services, now delivered by 67 councils, into four large water companies is because Scotland is a quarter of the size of New Zealand.

"Scotland has hard rock geology, we have soft rock geology. Scotland has no erosion, we have erosion. Scotland has a very simple geography and about four catchments, we have thousands of catchments.

"It's just dumb," Brown said.

Brown fired the broadside at the water reforms at his first public meeting in the Takapuna Methodist Church hall last night. About 30 people attended, including several local politicians.

Brown also compared the controversial reforms to the initial Covid-19 vaccine rollout run from the Ministry of Health in Wellington.

"Then they realised they had to involve local GPs and service providers and it worked well. The lesson in that is you shorten the distance between the service provider and the customer," he said.

Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta last month announced the Government is forging ahead with the water reforms. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Brown questioned the upper North Island company comprising Auckland's Watercare with one water scheme servicing 1.7 million people and Northland with 40 water schemes servicing 40 towns.

All that would do, he said, was add layers of management.

"At the moment you can ring up the local people and they know who you are. What is going to happen? Are you going to ring up a call centre in India?"

The Government last month announced it would forge ahead with the reforms, which stem from Havelock North's outbreak of gastroenteritis in 2016 where four people died and 5000 became ill, the drought in Auckland, and pipes bursting in Wellington.

The new Whangārei water treatment plant, one of 40 water systems in Northland. Photo / Tania Whyte

Brown, who was mayor of the Far North District Council from 2007 to 2013, is standing on a platform to "Fix Auckland" and leading big, complex organisations.

He said Auckland Council was in trouble with a "really, really big nasty balance sheet" and promised to rein in the council and its council-controlled organisations and their "overpaid" managers.