Whakatāne mayor Victor Luca says reforms will spell the end for the Labour Government unless incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins agrees to pull back on them.

Hipkins was sworn in to the Prime Minister's role on Wednesday, after Jacinda Ardern's resignation on January 19.

Although he has refrained from making any policy statements until he has met with Cabinet, Hipkins has said that there will be some 'reprioritisation” of projects and programmes. However, he has indicated that he will not be walking away from three waters reform.

'I think it will be the death knell for them if they do it(continue with three waters).

Luca says water is very important to people.

'IIt's one thing people can't live without as far as I can figure out. I've never met anyone who could live without it.”

He is critical of the Government's work in engaging with Māori about the reforms.

'As far as water sovereignty goes, I was up-country a few weeks ago talking to certain hapū and they were completely in the dark about it. If Government has engaged with iwi and with Māoridom then I don't know who they've engaged with. It seems that not that many people really know what's going on.”

He saiys Ardern's resignation came as no surprise to him.

'I think that a lot of their reform agenda is a bit on the nose with many people. I wrote to the prime minister a while ago and said ‘if you carry on as you are going, you are going to lose people like me and I've always been a Labour voter'.”

Luca says he's certain the change of prime minister will have ramifications for the Whakatāne district but it's hard to say what they would be at this stage.

'It's undoubtedly going to affect us because we're where the rubber hits the road, really.”

He says councils are all suffering 'reform fatigue” at the moment.

Despite all councils being in recess throughout January, as they are every year, they are expected to have submissions in by February 5 on the Water Services Legislation Bill, which is the second of three water reform bills, as well as two bills for the Resource Management Act reforms - the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill.

On top of this, the closing date for submissions on the draft report into Future for Local Government Review is February 28.

'You name it, they're trying to reform it. Everything's being done in the holidays and I just think that's a pretty cynical kind of politics. I don't think it's going to be appreciated by a lot of people.

'We'll see. Watch this space, I guess, from the Government, but I think we would be naïve to think that it's not going to have an impact on us as well.”

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.