That surprises me to a degree, given the trouble the Government has had with Three Waters, the problems they have in the polls and the trouble they dug themselves into last week over race issues in health.
Just to recap - when the Prime Minister became the Prime Minister he tossed a bunch of stuff out, or on the bonfire. But one of them wasn’t Three Waters.
Three Waters was handed to Kieran McAnulty to wander off and rejig. Trouble with the rejig is it was limited to changing the number of water entities to ten from four.
I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve, given the main problem was not the number of entities but rather the co-governance aspect.
Maori got automatic access and too much influence. Maybe Kieran thought if he could smokescreen us we wouldn’t notice.
What you might have noticed is it has vanished from the radar for the past couple of months. That is the beauty of the news cycle for the Government.
We can't keep our attention on much more than one or two things these days, so serious issues can disappear.
But, Three Waters is back. It has been announced that Northland and Auckland will lead off in terms of implementation.
The trouble with this is two-fold;
1) It's an electoral disaster the Government doesn’t need,
2) It's not set to actually start until the middle of next year i.e when they are potentially out of office.
So, the obvious question is, why? Given all the trouble you have got as a Government, would you take a turd of an idea and reheat it to make your life harder during the campaign, if you have no chance of having it actually up and working to be able to show off as a potential success story?
Race has, and will, bog this Government down.
The Maorification that has unfolded in the past six years has got up the nose of a lot of people in this country. And Three Waters, in many respects, is the crown jewel of all that is wrong with the philosophy.
The mere fact the water authorities “may” give consideration to community concerns over water, but “must” react to Maori concerns is the very race problem so many don’t get, and don’t like.
Yet, here we are, looking to re-enter the battle once again.
Ask yourself this - if you are Labour, does promoting separatism, through a massive restructure of water, enhance your chances of gaining votes?
Exactly. So good luck with that.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings
I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve, given the main problem was not the number of entities but rather the co-governance aspect.
Maori got automatic access and too much influence. Maybe Kieran thought if he could smokescreen us we wouldn’t notice.
What you might have noticed is it has vanished from the radar for the past couple of months. That is the beauty of the news cycle for the Government.
We can't keep our attention on much more than one or two things these days, so serious issues can disappear.
But, Three Waters is back. It has been announced that Northland and Auckland will lead off in terms of implementation.
The trouble with this is two-fold;
1) It's an electoral disaster the Government doesn’t need,
2) It's not set to actually start until the middle of next year i.e when they are potentially out of office.
So, the obvious question is, why? Given all the trouble you have got as a Government, would you take a turd of an idea and reheat it to make your life harder during the campaign, if you have no chance of having it actually up and working to be able to show off as a potential success story?
Race has, and will, bog this Government down.
The Maorification that has unfolded in the past six years has got up the nose of a lot of people in this country. And Three Waters, in many respects, is the crown jewel of all that is wrong with the philosophy.
The mere fact the water authorities “may” give consideration to community concerns over water, but “must” react to Maori concerns is the very race problem so many don’t get, and don’t like.
Yet, here we are, looking to re-enter the battle once again.
Ask yourself this - if you are Labour, does promoting separatism, through a massive restructure of water, enhance your chances of gaining votes?
Exactly. So good luck with that.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings
9 comments:
Precisely, Mike. That, and the RMA reform which is just another 'Three Waters/ automatic Maori seats at the table affair' and now, more recently, ethnicity determining access to health care. With a cost of living going through the roof (and just wait until the petrol tax comes back on); crime out control; and, an education system in dire straits, this Government clearly has a death wish. Let's all put it out of its (and our) misery.
No one knows about this though mike. You ask the average kiwi if they know the govt's plans around this and they will just shrug. If you explain, they look at you like you are a crazy person/ racist. This is what labour is counting on.
The Government are embarked on a very dangerous journey. Once 3+Waters is enacted and control vested into boards controlled by ethnicity where Maori demand action and have the right of veto, then our country will be divided and it will be irrespirable.
Control of water to your home, your business will be costed by such entities. These costs are not declared today. These costs will not apply to all residents - elites will not have charges imposed.
The cost of water into the property (to be metered), the cost of waste water taken away to be costed (eg 80% volume of what went in to the property) and the cost of waste water taken away, based on size of the section from your rates.
As seen in Victoria Australia, you can then add other “charges” as you see fit. A “levy” for parks and gardens(based on section size); a fire services levy (because the Government there can); and naturally costs for new and maintaining infrastructure. Water will become very expensive and fully owned and controlled by a few tribes (who will not share the benefits equitably).
If you think your electricity bill is high, you ain’t seen nothing yet once 3 Waters kicks in.
Surely it is pressure from both the Maori cabinet and the Maori party - get it done before the election. In the biggest population with the highest Maori base.
They will be working on the theory that if National get in, they have a history of never changing things. That they will promise to rescind the legislation before the election, afterwards it will be too hard and they will just make it run better.
Damn clever idea that has a high probability of success.
Unfortunately it wont be until Joe public is slammed in the pocket and or more freedoms are lost will he finally see what happened.
It will be then that a stand will be taken with enough is enough as the catch cry.
Would National sort out the mess and revoke all things racial, one would hope so, but I have my doubts.
Who ever thought NZ would see civil unrest like some countries over seas.
It never went away. He Puapua alive and well and maori mafia's coup still on track.
labour seem happy to die in a ditch with 3 waters. I hope they get to stay in the muddy ditch.
How about a referendum on that? But no. Communist governments don't allow referendums!
Kevan
The international credit agencies are poised to suck the blood from NZ with the amount of debt to be imposed. They have taken a great interest in this. No one is telling us how the funding model will be structured. It's another very murky area of 3 Waters that could financially imperil we citizens.
MC
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