John Robertson: Three Waters - the debt is in the detail

In a most unusual step, the same week that Parliament passed the Water Services Entities 2022 Act before rising for Christmas, the Government introduced another Bill to amend it.

The Bill goes by the name of the Water Services Legislation Bill and it is as long as the Act it seeks to amend.

This is another sign of Three Waters reform package being poorly planned and developed piecemeal.

The Government’s Three Waters reform agenda has been deficient from the time it tabled the business case in mid-2021. The assumptions behind the case are highly subjective and rightly have been challenged by most leaders from the local government sector.