"Time is of the essence for anyone keen to share their feedback on the latest chapter in the Government's Three Waters Reform process."
That's the message from Tauranga City Council, which is taking every opportunity to make sure its communities are heard and considered in the government-led initiative to merge and standardise water services across New Zealand.
Before its summer break, the Government released two new legislative bills, the Water Services Legislation Bill and Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill.
The two new bills are now open for submissions from councils and the wider public, says a statement from Tauranga City Council.
Individuals have until February 12, 2023 to make their submission, with council submissions closing shortly afterward on February 17, 2023.
"Due to the short submission window and breadth of the legislation, TCC has joined forces with 21 other councils in the Entity B area to enlist the aid of Simpson Grierson, a legal firm specialising in public policy analysis," says the council.
"The Firm will assist TCC and the other councils to conduct a thorough review of the two bills.
"This will allow Council to submit an accurate and impactful response within the Government's limited timeframe.
"The limited timeframe to submit responses also means TCC is unable to incorporate community feedback into its formal council submission.
"Instead, it encourages its communities to submit their feedback on the two bills directly to Central Government through its submission portals."
To make individual submissions follow the submission prompts on New Zealand Parliament's webpages for the Water Services Legislation Bill and the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill.
Previous Tauranga City Council submissions can be found on TCC's Three Waters Reform webpage.
8 comments
Why bother
Posted on 18-01-2023 12:30 | By Johnney
This arrogant government just binned 80,000 submissions late last year to ram this through. Why would anyone bother wasting their time and effort when their mandate is to ignore submissions and pass their bill.
Give us a break
Posted on 18-01-2023 12:44 | By an_alias
The local communities have spoken, the govt just doesnt like the answer. What a farce our democracy has become.
3 waters
Posted on 18-01-2023 13:26 | By dumbkof2
what is there to talk about the majority of new zealanders don't want anything to do with it
Three waters is privatising water
Posted on 18-01-2023 13:54 | By jed
I'm against three waters until they take out the iwi privatisation components. Government have ignored all comment to date, nothing to say they'll start listening now.
But they ignore
Posted on 18-01-2023 14:40 | By Kancho
Submissions on their hopelessly rushed through previous bad legislation they are now bring out more fixes. More to confuse but the reality is they are making ratepayers liable for any debt that these new entities get into. So they steal ratepayers assets and lubber us for any future mismanagement of debt. Outrageous. Also co governance continues and iwi can charge for water so it's really ownership against all principle of democracy and non ownership of water. They really need dumping out at the next election and remove race based non democratic votes and division of health , housing , etc
More manipulation
Posted on 18-01-2023 16:48 | By Feedup
Having been to 3/5 waters meetings and entered my own written submission only to see them flushed away, I made sure during the Local Body Elections that only the Candidates that protected the Bay assets were voted for. A Racial divide is being engineered and the present government will get crucified and rightfully so
HAHAHA, Really?
Posted on 18-01-2023 22:47 | By Yadick
TCC are taking EVERY opportunity their(?) community is heard. Well that's a bloody joke isn't it. The puppet master will have her way. Mahuta pulls the strings. Democracy is a very loosely played with word with no meaning in Government language or action. What Mahuta wants, Mahuta will get and the so-called leader Jacinda will play right into her hands. How in any world can a racist based decision be a democratic decision? It's past time for Jacinda to wake up and get out. A puppet played, yes, Prime Minister cannot possibly lead. Vote Labor out and take back our right to a democratic country. Elections cannot come fast enough.
Yet again
Posted on 19-01-2023 08:45 | By R. Bell
at the seven comments point it is clear opposition to the reforms are all racist in essence. Iwi are entitled to participate based on treaty bound rights, always ignored by the whinging commenters. Submissions are just that. To be considered nothing more, eliminated when it becomes clear the submission is race based without consideration of treaty rights and regional needs. Government is correct to ignore these so called submissions they simply confirm the ignorance of those making them.
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