Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill

I move, That the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill be now read a third time.

This bill will create a new regulatory body called Taumata Arowai to oversee, administer, and enforce a new and strengthened drinking-water regulatory system and to perform additional functions relating to improving the environmental performance of stormwater and waste-water networks. The name Taumata Arowai is intended to convey the importance and authority of this new regulator. In fact, the way in which a regulator acts to oversee the compliance with drinking-water standards, source protection, and the way waste water is returned to its receiving environment will be a significant aspect of their role—also, the way in which te mana o te wai is factored into its operations.

The bill has a largely administrative focus to establish Taumata Arowai as a legal entity and to provide for its objectives, functions, and governance arrangements. Comprehensive reform through a new drinking-water regulatory framework will be provided for in a separate, complementary bill. This forthcoming legislation, called the “Water Services Bill”, will prescribe Taumata Arowai’s specific responsibilities and powers, as well as the duties of councils and other water suppliers. As a new stand-alone Crown agent, Taumata Arowai will have a dedicated, sustained focus on drinking-water safety, with the mana to recruit highly skilled individuals; an appropriate degree of independence for dealing with highly technical matters, with a significant emphasis on compliance and enforcement; and sufficient independence to protect the integrity of its decision making.

I’ve previously outlined to the House the systemic failure of the existing drinking-water regulatory framework, a framework that allowed the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak to take place in 2016, where, at a conservative estimate, 34,000 New Zealanders get sick from drinking their household water every year. This is completely unacceptable, and we’re working to ensure that the creation of a regulator is the first step to giving New Zealanders confidence that no matter where they live, they will have access to safe, clean drinking-water.

The establishment of a new dedicated regulator delivers necessary step change, a national level oversight, leadership, and communication and coordination required to ensure the safety of drinking water across the country. In carrying out these functions, Taumata Arowai will provide a firm but consistent approach to monitoring and enforcing compliance with strengthened regulatory requirements for drinking water. It will also have a remit to provide much-needed central oversight and guidance of the operation of underperforming waste-water treatment plants and stormwater networks, while regional councils remain the primary regulator for waste water and stormwater discharges.

The bill sets the tone for Taumata Arowai to take a collaborative and outward-facing approach, including engaging and building relationships with consumers and regulated parties, including Māori; promoting public understanding of drinking-water safety, and the environmental performance of waste-water and stormwater networks; and working across councils and smaller water suppliers to build and maintain expertise and capability, including through sharing good practice, research, guidance, and training. This approach is intended to help build confidence in the safety of drinking water and the overarching regulatory system, and reinforces the importance of continual improvement across the three waters sector.

The bill also provides a number of provisions that individually and collectively recognise, respect, and provide for Māori interests as Treaty partners. These include, for example, requirements for Taumata Arowai to partner and engage early and meaningfully with Māori; inform how it can give effect to te mana o te wai; and understand, support, and enable the exercise of mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori, and kaitiakitanga. The overall intent is to ensure that Māori interests and knowledge are embedded throughout Taumata Arowai. To this end, a Māori advisory group will provide support and guidance to the regulators board, chief executive, and wider organisation.

While outlining the key intent of this bill, I’d like to briefly draw to the attention of the House a minor amendment made at the committee of the whole House stage. A Supplementary Order Paper extended the bill’s commencement provisions to provide time for Taumata Arowai’s board to be appointed before the Act comes into force, ensuring a smooth transition to the new regime. I reiterate that the bill, along with our broader package of three waters regulatory reform, demonstrates our Government’s commitment to addressing the issues and opportunities highlighted by the Havelock North drinking-water inquiry and the three waters review. Importantly, these reforms are the result of extensive engagement with local government, iwi Māori, and the wider water sector, where we’ve received strong support for the establishment of a dedicated national regulator.

I’d like to again thank all the parties for their constructive collaboration in developing this bill and the wider regulatory reforms. I look forward to working further with them on the next steps in the programme, and I’m certainly looking forward to the partnership that we currently have with local government and the work of the steering committee that is currently engaging with the sector. I’d also like to again acknowledge my colleagues for their support and contributions to this bill—in particular, the previous Minister of Health, the Hon David Clark, and the Minister for the Environment, the Hon David Parker.

I am pleased to say that we’ve listened to the expert advice, including the recommendations of the Havelock North inquiry, and a breadth of national and international research. We’ve listened to the views of regulated parties, including local government, iwi Māori, and the water sector, and through the creation of this new water regulator and sector leader, we have delivered on decisive, transformational change to put the health and safety of our communities first, because it’s all about our people who rely on us to make the right decisions so that they have the assurance of clean, safe drinking-water.

On that note, I commend the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. National does support the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill at its third reading. I was involved in the development of this bill through the first reading and the committee stage, and then left the role of local government spokesperson, and so I’m reacquainting myself with it.

I think the first comment I would have on this water services regulator bill is that it simply establishes Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator, as it is a new Crown agent, and it is true to say that the drinking-water regulator does enjoy the support of the local government sector, who, out of the Havelock North campylobacter incident, a very serious moment in local government in New Zealand, do recognise that a regulator, a Crown entity, will improve drinking-water regulation in New Zealand.

But I’m afraid that the support really begins to become a bit more delicate, and I wouldn’t agree with Minister Mahuta, who’s just spoken on the bill, that the Government’s programme on three waters reform enjoys wide support, as she noted, from the local government sector. I don’t believe it does. Pieces of legislation within the programme, such as the water services regulator bill, might enjoy support but I’m not so sure about the water services bill to follow. We haven’t seen it yet in enough detail to comment—but certainly not the stage after that, which has been signalled by the Minister as part of this programme, which is to, essentially, provide funding as long as councils commit to amalgamation of their water services. That is where this programme, I predict, will get very rocky for the Government, because what the Government fail to recognise through all of this is that these are not Crown assets they are considering and legislating for; these are community-owned, council-owned assets under the stewardship of councils.

I don’t think anyone’s arguing that there should not be improvement in the collective stewardship of drinking-water service, but what I hear from local government is extensive disquiet that the Government has been bent for the last three years on a programme which is effectively hitting the nuclear button in taking away the control of drinking water and ultimately three waters services from local authorities, under their own council-owned, community-owned infrastructure, and placing it, as long as the council agreed to amalgamate, into one of five water companies across New Zealand.

I won’t stray too far into that, because that’s a conversation for another day, but I would flag to the House that the words of the Minister in her third reading speech on the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill might come back to bite her in the future if she has the opportunity, which I hope she doesn’t, to then legislate to amalgamate water services. I don’t think the passage of that will come easily, and I do hope that local government finds its voice and lets its feelings be known on behalf of its ratepayers, on behalf of all of us who pay rates for our three waters infrastructure. And I hope it sends the message to this Government that forced amalgamation—which is what it amounts to, because councils are being held over a barrel—is not acceptable. Anyway, that is a conversation to come.

Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator, is going to be a Crown agent and does enjoy the general support of local government. However, also signalled by the Minister in her speech is that the water services bill gives effect to, and makes decisions on implementing, the nationwide reform to drinking-water services. Again, it has elements that we can support but—and it’s an often-used term in this House—the devil will be in the detail. I challenge the Minister to stay true to the comments she made today that she will engage with local government in a meaningful way on the next stage of this water reform, because we’re getting to the sharp end of this programme and there is a line—I can see the line—and I think that if it is to succeed and if it is to enjoy the support wider than one half, plus a little, of the House, then it really does need to go out and include all of the local authorities. At the moment, they have very real fears about where this whole programme is going to end up for them.

For some of the smaller authorities across New Zealand cities, it’s a different issue. Amalgamation and a centralised regulator and regulation that comes from Taumata Arowai is not an issue for larger cities in the main, because they have a greater corporate structure, but if you go into provincial and rural New Zealand and if you go on to marae, you are talking to the people that dug the trenches to put the water scheme in. Some of the older farmers around rural New Zealand are the ones that put the rural drinking-water scheme in, and their views need to be taken into account as this Government goes through this wider programme. With those comments, I commend this bill to the House.

I’ll take a very short call on behalf of the Green Party in support of the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill. We’ve long campaigned for the rights of water in this country. This is a critically important piece of legislation because the regulation and the basic maintenance of the infrastructure have been neglected for a really long time. So this is an important part of the solution.

I do just want to very quickly respond to the previous speaker, Jacqui Dean, and all of the talk about needing to work with the local government and acknowledge the importance and the ownership of water infrastructure in the local community. There’s a sense of irony for me of having gone through, in the last term of Parliament, local government legislation introduced by that side of the House that sought to enforce amalgamation on councils that all of local government rebelled against quite solidly in terms of National Party mayors threatening the National Government for doing exactly what that member was suggesting Labour would do. I’ve got to say that this Government has been showing a complete commitment to partnership in doing this work and it has to be part of it—and that is we also see in this legislation a commitment to partnership with Māori and a recognition of the importance of their rights in this area. We support this legislation.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to take a call on the Taumata Arowai—the Water Services Regulator Bill. I really just wanted to take this last call to say that I had the last word. I support this bill. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Bill read a third time.

The House adjourned at 12.57 p.m. (Friday)