"What they're doing is saying what's currently amber (could be a health risk) is now fine," Ms Patrick said.
Health risk in swimming water is usually measured by the number of e.coli bacteria in 100ml of water.
The presence of the faecal bacteria indicates diseases like cryptosporidium, giardia and salmonella may be present.
If there are less than 260 per 100ml the water is good for swimming. Between 260 and 540 the water gets an amber light, for caution.
It means there's a 5 per cent or one in 20 risk of getting ill.
If there are more than 540 bacteria per 100ml then swimming should be avoided.
Algal blooms can also make water unsafe for swimming, Ms Patrick said, but they are not part of the new criteria.
She liked Government's announcement of a Freshwater Improvement Fund of $100 million over 10 years, and the way it has added instream life as a measure of the health of a waterway.
"The ecological health is important too. It's the mauri, the life force, of water."
Through her role as a Horizons Region councillor, she's been told the amount of bacteria, sediment and nutrients in the Manawatu River has reduced markedly over the past 10 years.
That river has had $46 million spent on improving it during that time. Ms Patrick said freshwater in this end of the region was also getting better, though not as fast.
Government's announcement included new national regulations to keep stock out of waterways.
Ms Patrick said she regularly got phone calls from people concerned about seeing cattle in streams.
Dairy cows are almost completely excluded from waterways. The ones people were seeing were almost always beef cattle.
"For most reasonable people a cow is a cow is a cow. They're still having impact."
She'd like improvement to water to happen faster.
"We will never get reasonable change unless we push really hard."
