Michael Laws talks about Why the new water entities are a financial disaster about to seriously impact your wallet, on The Platform
Friday, March 27, 2026
Michael Laws: Why The New Water Entities Are A Financial Disaster
Labels: Local Water Done Well, Michael Laws, Tiaki Wai, WellingtonMichael Laws talks about Why the new water entities are a financial disaster about to seriously impact your wallet, on The Platform
12 comments:
There was an article about this in the Dominion this morning and the funny old thing is, you know, they didn’t even mention co-governance.
The transfer of debt from the councils was covered, however, and I figured that would just allow the councils to run up more debt. They are also transferring the bad kudos associated with the pipes. It’s a scam, hiding the pea under a different shell. And we are being forced to accept it.
Now, the actual workers – the dusties, the street cleaners, and many others – are fabulous, and I very much thank them. But the Mayors and the Council have been useless. It is their inaction that have got us here and they are now in the process of escaping the blame.
The Wellington Water (Tiaki Wai) chairperson Will Peet even said “But we have to develop a plan to tackle the big water services challenges and people will see the significant increase in investment set out in this plan over the next decade.” They don’t even know specifically what they have to do!!! It will be years before they even get started, if they ever do, and then it will take a decade. All they do is make up slogans: “Local Water Done Well”, “Let’s Get Wellington Moving”.
This is going to be a waste of time and rates payers’ money, which will now additionally be taxed by the iwis.
And they are about to spend over $200k on a party for finally earthquake proofing what was the new library, while the old library is still standing. The fact is they have trashed our town square.
It’s a nightmare.
What a joke. I voted for three waters but the electorate said no thanks, let’s keep raising the infrastructure debt for NZ, and National said “yup we’re on it!”
Please tell us how "Three Waters" would have solved the issues, Anon 6-48. The problems lie with Councils who were not engineers, thinking because pipes are hidden, they don't need maintaining. thus no money set aside. Priorities were always pretty, visible useless projects. Chickens have come home to roost
The Anon supporter of the old 3 Waters Reform has demonstrated (again) that they clearly had no idea what they were voting for. Nanaia was proposing to gear those water services entities up to 6x revenue as well. Infrastructure debt galore!
Don't forget, Barrie, those local Council's/ratepayers that have been even more remiss in their maintenance duties will have the tab picked up/ equalised by their neighbours, and then the first order of business for the new entities will be the accumulation of more debt in the acquisition of new: offices & furniture; IT systems; vehicle fleets; comms, finance, resource management, HR, H&S, and finance teams; stationery, signage & letterheads; uniforms; blessings, you name it(?), all before any new infrastructure is installed - all much akin to that 'new hospital' in that documentary series 'Yes Minister'.
And then, when all that's done, we'll have that half-$Billion+ roll-out on those incredibly 'useful' water meters that will only 'enhance' the performance (and necessary oversight) of the whole package - all only surpassed by the 'added value' of having an element of mana whenua governance.
Water done well? Yeah - right!
It does, however, cement the view that, National, really must have a death wish? From the abysmal failure to carry out their election promises, to the co-governance about-face on this... Perhaps that's why they chose left-leaning Wokeington for the first roll out, and all before the next election?
Chickens come home to roost indeed Hugh! Effluent on the Wellington beaches and budget blowouts from National. I’m not taking any glee in pointing to the electorate wearing the effects of such a bad decision. One can only hope that government and the voters have their eyes open and are learning from these things.
Three Waters made a lot of sense. The co-governance politics scuppered it but water management always was a national issue.
For a start, rivers and water catchments don't pay any heed to local body boundaries.
Then there's the reality that the sheer cost of building and maintaining water infrastructure is beyond the budget of most territorial local bodies.
Thirdly, there's the dead hand of local body politics that is incapable of looking past the next rates bill, regardless of the future benefits involved. Pipes and drains are out of sight and therefore out of mind to the average voter and therefore there is no incentive for local body politicians to prioritise spending on water infrastructure.
So they don't.
And that is why they have now forfeited the right to own and manage it. That's not an ideological stance. It's a logical conclusion based on the outcomes of a century of local body mismanagement driven by voter apathy.
It therefore makes sense to move water management to a central authority focused on national priorities, not parish pump projects (pun entirely intended).
And since nobody seriously expects the cost of capital projects to be funded out of rate revenue, debt is the only alternative funding mechanism. Any central authority would have access to the Crown's sovereign debt facility which is the cheapest credit available. Win - win.
So removing local territorial authorities from the governance structure is not just logical, it's essential. And the sooner the better. After all, mother nature has the final say over where the water comes from and where it goes, and she is getting grumpier by the year.
Why does anyone, especially in National, think that Maori should have any control over water - water has nothing to do with Maori DNA, or modern myths.
Making Councils consult with local Maori families is absurd !
With Mayors paying unelected Maori with full voting rights onto Council committees, then of course, Maori are going to have full control of almost all public resources.
Can't Watts and other Luxon acolytes see this ?
So much for democracy under Luxon.
Jones Boy delighted at destruction of democracy.
And what democracy would you be talking about Anon 8.51? You can't mean local democracy because that died years ago. Need I remind you that voter turnout for the 2025 local elections was a disgraceful 39.4% after the counting of special votes. And that's the national average. It dropped as low as 29.33% in Auckland City and 32.97% in Hamilton City. That's not democracy Anon 8.51. In a democracy, the majority rules, but by not voting, the majority of New Zealanders have clearly abandoned local democracy. We all know Regional Councils are on life support. If all Councils were dissolved tomorrow and replaced by Commissioners I bet the majority of voters wouldn't even notice anything had happened, much less care.
I asked Copilot to check on deliverables and timeframes for fixing the pipes and got the following response:
“Short answer: No — there are currently no publicly released, legally mandated deliverables or completion dates for specific physical works such as pipe replacements or the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant rebuild under the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025. The Act sets governance and planning obligations, but not project level construction schedules. The only time bound requirements are for planning documents (e.g., Water Services Delivery Plans), not for individual assets.”
The council completed the strategic Wellington Metropolitan Water Services Delivery Plan (WSDP) in August 2025, which is about governance structures, funding and finance models. It does not say what actual work will be done, such as replacement of specific pipes or plant such as Moa Point. We have only been told they will install water meters so they can charge us for usage.
So, we are being forced to pay a lot of money and we don’t know what, if anything, we will get for it. I suspect that, in a decade, we will be in much the same situation we are in now, except that Maori consultancy will have expanded to full co-governance.
Yet I haven't read of this in The Post.
Response to The Jones Boy at 1:49pm. Yes, some of the proposed '3 waters' solutions were sensible. But you fail to acknowledge that the non-sensible baggage the policy came with was unacceptable to most New Zealanders. Mainly, that was costly co-governance by people with no necessary expertise except 'spiritual' (whatever that means), and uncompensated seizure of local council assets regardless of how much a council (i.e. the local residents) might have spent on those assets compared with other councils.
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