Tēnā koutou katoa, see below an update on the 3Waters.
Ngāti Kahungunu’s Key Recommendations:
The Three Waters reform programme is complex and has many moving parts. In this briefing, we share key updates with iwi/Māori to help you understand the reform programme and participate in it.
Water Services Entities Bill
Select committee report back
The Water Services Entities Bill was introduced on 2 June 2022. The bill establishes four publicly owned dedicated Water Services Entities that will provide safe, reliable, and efficient water services through improved investment and management.
This was followed by a first reading on 9 June where it was referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. The Committee considered over 80,000 submissions on this legislation
Today (11 November) the Finance and Expenditure Committee issued its report on the Water Services Entities Bill. You can find this report here.
An overview of the response to the Select Committee process: |
80,000 Submissions made by New Zealanders |
600+ Oral submissions |
approx.130 Amendments made to the Bill |
The key themes from the submission process included existing service provision, ownership, governance structure, joint-oversight, the scope and scale of the entities, privatization, and local voice and community engagement amongst others.
The Select Committee considered these in making its recommendations back to the Government. The key amendments to Bill 1 include:
· WSE’s are “plan-takers”
Revisions to the Bill support Local Government growth and planning processes as an objective. At the request of councils, the legislation is clear about the role of the Water Services Entities in supporting the planning process, that they are “plan-takers” rather than “plan-makers”.
· Ensuring all voices are heard at the table
The make-up of the Regional Representative Group will be required to consider the appropriate mix of metro, provincial and rural councils to ensure smaller councils do not lose their voice in favour of larger centres.
· Increased accountability to communities
The Entities will be required to have an annual shareholder meeting to keep them accountable to communities.
Treaty settlement rights & protection Post Settlement Governance Entities hui We are doing some work to ensure that all Treaty settlements, their redress mechanisms and obligations are upheld and protected by the reform. This work will contribute towards the final form of the Water Services Amendment Bill (Bill 2). At this stage Bill 2 is scheduled to be introduced in early December. Analysis to understand the potential impacts on Treaty settlements has been completed with the help of Paul Beverley from Buddle Findlay and we are now at a stage where we a reaching out to PSGEs to make time to sit with them, to talk through this analysis, get advice from the PSGEs on whether there are gaps or other things to consider and also options for how to progress forward. There are two broad groupings of Treaty Settlements that fall out of the analysis. The first group are those Treaty Settlements (mechanisms, rights and interests) that are going to require extra consideration to ensure that they are protected throughout the reform process and the second group are those Treaty Settlements that we believe will not be substantially effected by the reform. We are now in a phase of reaching out in the first instance to those iwi/PSGEs who fall within the first group. Formal correspondence will be sent out to all PSGEs with information about this and the analysis from Buddle Findlay in the next short while. Timeframes - Bill 2 · Introduction: early December 2022. · Submissions (to Select Committee) on Bill 2 will open mid-December, close mid-March 2023. We understand that this is a really busy time of year and that your availability will be limited however we will be working with you to find time to ensure that we can work through these issues together to find a way forward to meet the Bill 2 timeframe. |
He Pūkenga Wai Fund Support for iwi/PSGEs to engage with their whānau A reminder that He Pūkenga Wai is fund available to support mandated PSGES, mandated iwi organisations and iwi authorities (as recognised in the Resource Management Act 1991). Information on He Pūkenga Wai can be found here. If you need support to navigate this process please reach out to your engagement lead |
Entity A Engagement Leads Ōtene Rewiti otene.rewiti@dia.govt.nz Nikora Wharerau nikora.wharerau@dia.govt.nz
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Entity C Engagement Lead Te Tuanui Paki
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Entity B Engagement Lead Ngaa Rauuira Puumanawawhiti |
Entity D Engagement Lead Hera Smith |
Ngā mihi,
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