From the Government’s point of view, the answer is that it hasn’t gone wrong. The scheme to grab assets paid for by ratepayers over many years and put them into four new entities well out of reach of ratepayers is still going ahead.
These entities will be governed and managed in accordance with “the principles of the Treaty, Te Mana o te Wai and mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori, kaitiakitanga, and te ao Māori”, according to the various Cabinet papers on the subject.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta trumpets that councils will still own the assets, which isn’t even sort of true. Councils may own the assets, but they certainly will not control them.
It would be like owning a house which you can’t live in, where the tenants set the rent, and you can’t get rid of them. Yes, you still own the house, you just can’t exercise any real control over what happens in it, but you still pay the bills.
