Gary Moller: Wellington’s Water Bill - When the Money Tree Finally Runs Out

Introduction
From 1 July 2026, property owners throughout Wellington, Porirua and the Hutt Valley will receive a separate bill for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater from the new council-owned organisation, Tiaki Wai. Our's arrived today. These costs are presently collected through council rates, so the councils will remove the water component from their rates bills. However, this is not merely an accounting exercise in which the same amount of money moves from one invoice to another. The overall cost to households will rise, and for many homeowners the increase will be substantial.

Graeme Reeves: The Constitutional Revolution New Zealand Pretends Is Not Happening

There are moments in a nation’s history when power shifts so gradually, so quietly, and so bureaucratically that the public fails to recognise the transformation until the new order is already entrenched. New Zealand may now be living through precisely such a moment.

The Tiaki Wai agreement is not merely a water governance document. It is a warning flare. A glimpse into a constitutional future being constructed incrementally, contractually, and largely beyond the direct awareness or explicit consent of the wider electorate.

John McLean: Performative Parsimony

Pretending to care when squandering others’ money

The latest thespian to act as if he’s outraged about public service wastage of ratepayer and taxpayer money is the Wellington City Council’s Deputy Mayor, Ben McNulty.

Michael Laws: Why The New Water Entities Are A Financial Disaster

Michael Laws talks about Why the new water entities are a financial disaster about to seriously impact your wallet, on The Platform

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