Graeme Reeves: Observations on 3 Waters reform (now Affordable Waters)

On Saturday, 15 April on the Nation (TV3) John Tamihere, as part of a panel commenting on the affordable water reforms, expressed the view that all the fresh water in the rivers and lakes of New Zealand are the property of Māori:  

“We know they had to go to a co-governance model to placate the true issue, which is that Māori own the water assets, that’s just a fact.”

He went on to say: “Māori rightly say, how do we get co-governance when we own 100 percent of it?

The real issue is how do pakehas get into the room.”

Is Tamihiri’s assertion that Māori own 100 percent of the fresh water in New Zealand a fact that has been proven by the Court true?

John MacDonald: Affordable water - robbing Peter to pay Paul

So the question today is “are we being ripped-off big time by the Government’s latest version of its water reforms?”

That’s the question. And my answer is a resounding “yes”.

And it’s the rip-off bit of the “Affordable Water Reforms”. Until yesterday, they were called the 3 Waters reforms. Today, they’re known as the “Affordable Water Reforms”.

Tim Dower: If Hipkins thinks rebranding Three Waters will win us over, then he thinks we're stupid

If Chris Hipkins thinks rebranding Three Waters by calling it "Affordable Water Reforms" is going to win us all over, then he obviously thinks we're stupid.

At the end of the day, the only serious change I can see here is switching from four monstrous and unwieldy administrations to 10 monstrous and unwieldy administrations.

We're told this means every council gets a seat at the table. But despite the Prime Minister's insistence co-governance is long gone from Three Waters, it's not.

Cam Slater: New Three Waters: Same Same but Different

The Government has announced its new Three Waters plan, and called it Affordable Waters. They clearly think we are all stupid and don’t realise that, despite the ‘new’ name, it is still the same stupid plan but with added complexity, and still has the offensive and racist co-governance model embedded into it.

Instead of four entities, there are now ten, which means even more management staff, consultants and trough-feeding scumbags to sustain. It also still effectively steals your water assets and gifts half of them to Maori interests.

It is a sham rejig and National is calling it rubbish: