“Kiwis are resoundingly against Labour’s anti-democratic Three Waters agenda and 50,000 have signed ACT’s petition to return stolen property to local councils,” says ACT’s Local Government spokesperson Simon Court.

“ACT has made a commitment – if Labour steals it, ACT will repeal it.

“Councils and ratepayers are rejecting Three Waters because central government is barging in and taking control of their assets but Labour is bulldozing through all opposition.

“ACT has put forward valid criticism of these reforms, Labour backbenchers have responded by calling me “racist”. There’s nothing racist about not wanting to split assets up based purely on ancestry. All New Zealanders want clean and safe water, not just iwi.

“Instead of just taking assets – ACT has an alternative Water Infrastructure Plan. We have received detailed feedback from Mayors, many of whom support all or some aspects of the plan.

ACT’s Water Infrastructure Plan would:

• Provide for councils to enter voluntary “shared services” agreements, gaining the benefits of scale, while retaining local ownership and control
• Establish long term 30-year Central Government-Local Government Partnership agreements to plan water infrastructure upgrades tailored to specific regions
• Establish a Public-Private Partnerships (through our proposed Nation Building Agency) to attract investment from financial entities such as KiwiSaver funds, ACC, iwi investment funds, etc.
• Expand the exemption from domestic supply for a single dwelling to also include all small water suppliers sup plying fewer than 30 endpoint users.

“We can improve the current system, but we don’t need to do so through state-mandated centralisation.

“ACT’s plan will better balance community control of water assets alongside a plan for levelling up the necessary infrastructure to ensure safety and efficient water allocation.”

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