17 November 2009
Media Statement

Hide spawns further confusion on privatisation of Auckland’s water assets

Rodney Hide today said the Cabinet decision to allow the new Auckland Council to privatise the city’s water assets after 2015 still stood, despite earlier suggestions to the contrary, says Labour's Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford.

“Either the Local Government Minister misled Parliament with his answer, or he appears to have misled the New Zealand Herald over the issue. Whatever the story is, it’s high time we got a straight answer.

“Earlier this month I said the Cabinet process around the Auckland Council and Local Government Act reforms was shambolic, but today it got even worse – and the public remains in the dark.

The facts are these:

* On October 19 Cabinet supported Rodney Hide and decided to allow the new Auckland Council to move to privatise its water assets after 2015.

* A week later, Cabinet took a completely contradictory position and refused to support Rodney Hide’s proposed change to the Local Government Act (LGA) which would enable full privatisation of local government water assets nationwide.

* On November 9, following an interview with Rodney Hide, the Herald reported that while Cabinet approved the privatisation of $5 billion worth of Auckland’s water assets, it was over-turned by the subsequent LGA decision.

* Today in Parliament, because Labour has been able to find no evidence that the Auckland water decision was in fact overturned, I asked Mr Hide if the October 19 decision did still stand. He answered ‘yes’.

“I called on John Key to clear up this confusion two weeks ago, in the interests of Auckland ratepayers. He has done nothing and it now appears Mr Hide is peddling different stories to different audiences. Either that or he has utterly lost control of what is going on in his portfolio,” Phil Twyford said.

“It’s not good enough. Aucklanders are strongly opposed to the privatisation of their water assets – they have a right to know what’s going on.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media