Decision-Day For Masterton’s Water

Thursday, 22 May 2025, 3:50 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

May 20, 2025

Masterton councillors will decide on Wednesday whether to progress a Wairarapa-Tararua water service entity, or go it alone.

The council was set to deliberate on submissions at 2pm on Wednesday and decide between the two options.

If the council voted to progress work on the Wairarapa-Tararua water services delivery model, it would enter into a commitment agreement with the participating councils and develop the Water Services Delivery Plan and foundation principles and documents to be carried forward into the plan.

Foundation principles would include: non-standardisation of pricing and debt; share allocation; and decision-making arrangements.

If council chose this option, there would be two further opportunities to exit the arrangement and to submit a Water Services Delivery Plan with a Masterton-only water services delivery model to the Department of Internal Affairs.

The Wairarapa-Tararua option was recommended by council staff because it “enables council to work through the uncertainties and concerns of the Wairarapa-Tararua model while still providing council with two opportunities to exit the arrangement”.

Alternatively, the council could vote to not progress a Wairarapa Tararua water services delivery model and only progress a Masterton-only water services delivery model.

Analysis of the 139 submissions made to Masterton District Council showed the majority (60%) were in favour of the Wairarapa-Tararua proposal.

Key themes in the submissions from those who supported the proposal were economies of scale, long-term sustainability, support for increased borrowing capacity.

Of those who did not support the proposal, key themes were concerns about price standardisation, affordability, and the desire to have more localised control over water assets and services.

A report to council said that while protections against price standardisation could be put in place, standardisation in the future could not be guaranteed.

A memo from legal firm Morrison Low was also included in the agenda pack for Wednesday’s meeting.

It provided advice and guidance to Masterton District Council on the council’s desire to “on establishment, protect Masterton from price standardisation” and “ensure that there are sufficient protections over key decisions or changes to foundational documents over the longer term that protect Masterton from price standardisation to the extent that is desired”.

It said there was “a path forward” that would provide council with assurance that price differentiation was possible; shareholding could be determined on a basis that reflected Masterton’s position relative to the region; and decision making could be structured in a way that promoted regional focus and recognised Masterton’s position relative to the region at the current time.

It also said protections could be enshrined in the series of foundational documents required to establish and then control and govern the council-controlled organisation.

It recommended voting mechanism provisions in both the shareholders agreement and constitution which ensured no single council had positive or negative control but which required 75% of the shareholders to agree to any changes to foundational documents.

“A super majority or similar threshold requires not just Masterton District Council but other councils to agree as well, giving a perception and reality that is more consistent with consensus decision making while preserving Masterton District Council’s ability to protect the interests of its ratepayers," the memo said.

It recommended commencing with local pricing but having a review point for standardisation.

This could be a point in time, such as five years, or an “identified cost differential”, for example, when local prices were within 10% of each other.

South Wairarapa District Council has already voted to pursue the Wairarapa-Tararua option.

Carterton District Council were set to meet at 9am Thursday to deliberate on submissions and decide a path forward.

Tararua District Council would meet on May 28 to deliberate on submissions and would decide on the future of water management at an extraordinary meeting on June 11.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.