A Govt that imposes Three Waters is a dictatorship
- Don Brash
- Oct 27, 2021
- 1 min read
A Government that ignores reasoned opposition from local government by imposing 50/50 iwi-council co-governance through its Three Waters Plan is yet another step closer to a dictatorship.
Three Waters is the Government's plan to establish four publicly-owned entities to take responsibility for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater from local councils.
Today, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta confirmed that the Government will force its Three Waters reforms on local councils after it was first pitched as voluntary .
Imposing a plan to give tribal representatives equal say with 67 councils over New Zealand water is outrageous.
Embedding 50/50 co-governance between councils and iwi who claim to represent 17 percent of the population is a major step towards creating a society in which everyone has to check their ancestry to work out their political rights.
Today’s imposition of the Three Waters Plan is a big step towards implementing the He Puapua Plan, which involves two governments under tribal control, one for Maori by Maori and the other a fully bicultural version of what we already have.
The forced introduction of Three Waters initially followed the prescription outlined in the He Puapua plan, which involved consultation with iwi groups first, then propaganda to soften up everyone else.
The frightening aspect of today’s imposition is that when councils expressed concern about asset confiscation and substandard representation, the Ardern Government went ahead and imposed it anyway.
This is an outrageous decision, and will cost the Government votes at the next election.
Just to get some perspective on this, has the govt asked each council for their water services upgrades requirements, the $ involved and the timing of the required expenditure, and the public release this information? I suspect not. Plenty of keyboard 'experts' (and the govt) out there talking of the disastrous, critical state of water services across the country, but is this valid or just emotive waffle? A few facts would assist public discussion of these very important national issues. Transparency, honesty etc. would be a good place to start. We are talking about ratepayer funded and owned assets here, Surely they deserve better.
In most cases, especially in the established cities and towns, the system is more than 100 years old and predictably is creaking a little. Under the neoliberal paradigm, it has been starved of funds for decades. Typically, maintenance, repairs, and upgrades would be a charge to the ratepayers. But the cost of everything has risen exponentially.
It seems that these days central government is living on credit and borrowing without a thought for tomorrow. It is recklessly disbursing these funds on politically motivated projects. $55 million to the media, $150 million to Maori health to promote vaccination – I could go on. For instance, the government recently offered councils 2.5 billion as an inducement to accept the Three Waters scheme.
Of course Minister Mahuta rejects the claim that the Three Waters legislation is an attack on democracy because few people are willing to explain why, viz that Maori are undemocratically represented in the governance process. All ratepayers, Maori included, will appoint representatives. But, in addition, these same Maori ratepayers will be represented, through some unspecified and presumably pseudo-democratic process, by the mana whenua. So, for starters. Maori get two bites of the cherry, leaving aside the matter of some 17% of the country’s population being represented by 50% of the board.
What an unbelievable disgrace this so called government is. If the majority of councils stick to their guns ( and what the majority of their ratepayers support) what can the dictators do? They can legislate whatever they want in their demented mindset, but if people just say 'no', what can they do in practice? Bottom line, DEMOCRACY, We've had enough, get stuffed. None of us voted for this totally hidden agenda. .Our once proud country identified itself on fair play and equal opportunity for all. We are not your Lego set, you bloody traitors.
We are all stroking each other up, we even have the handy towels ready to wipe the mess up, but lets be frank nothing will come of it, we are all firing blanks, and yes it does feel like we are onto it and we are, but it really does not matter until it is time to cast ones vote and that could be a hit or miss out come to with no real satisfaction, I still don't trust the opposition they are all cut from the same cloth we all know that, we need a new right wing nationalistic party, should we call it the Tasman 1642s, main push our country comes first nothing else matters.