Last year the Prime Minister told us the government had put up $2.5 billion to incentivise councils to support the Three Waters proposals and last week applications opened for the first part of this funding ($500 million).
It has since been reported by Newshub; that part of the deal is being seen as a gag on those councils that accept any of this funding. There is a clause in the agreement that states;
“Councils who get the cash “must not at any time do anything which could have an adverse effect on the reputation, good standing or goodwill of the Department of Internal Affairs or the Government”.
The councils were initially offered the funding to spend even on projects that have nothing to do with water infrastructure.
Now that there is a huge majority of the councils that have rejected the Three Waters proposals it seems that the government is trying to coerce them into at least silence if not support for the proposals.
To ask councillors to choose whether or not to take money to improve services for their local community, or to fight for affordable, transparent, and accountable/democratic management of the water assets built by generations of ratepayers, is in my opinion morally corrupt if not actually corrupt practice.
The Newshub report also said:
“In a statement, the Department of Internal Affairs told Newshub “no clause in the Funding Agreement… prevents or prohibits any council from publicly expressing its own views”.
It adds: “It is a common and prudent clause in public funding documents as a safeguard to protect against the misuse of public funds.”
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta says that this not a gag order but I for one don’t see how it can be viewed as anything but a gagging order.
Instead of trying to incentivise/bribe and then gag the councils with public funds the politicians should be listening to the councils and taking note of their objections.
The government has got it wrong, they have read the mood of the pubic wrongly and if they had any moral fibre at all they would stand up and admit this and put the whole Three Waters proposal on hold until a national referendum is held to either approve it or to do away with it in its entirety.
The Minister Mahuta claimed that she had been advised by the government’s lawyers that the co-governance model was necessary for the Crown to comply with its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. But in fact this is not true as there is no co-governance requirement contained in the Treaty of Waitangi document. There is also the fact that the Water Infrastructure assets didn’t exist in 1840 so how could they be a part of the Treaty documentation and also subject to some non-existent co-governance agreement.
The whole Three Waters proposal is now being challenged in the High Court in Wellington and yet there is hardly a mention of this anywhere in the mainstream media. It’s amazing what you can do with a Public Interest Journalism Fund.
This whole Three Waters proposal is in my opinion is no more than theft of assets from the ratepayer owner’s writ large and a direct attack on our democracy, even though the government has stated that the ownership will remain with the ratepayers.
But it is a fact that if one has no rights in relation to a thing — e.g., no right to use it, to enjoy it, to gain a return from it, to dispose of it, to destroy it, to control it or to control its use — one does not own that thing and this proposal strips local authorities of all the rights of ownership which proves that this claim of ownership is blatantly untrue.
It is no more than PR “spin” on a grand scale trying to protect the government’s image.
New Zealand has one of the oldest democracies in the world yet this government is trying to enact legislation that is in actual fact no more than a direct attack on our democratic systems (e.g. Three Waters; Pae Ora; Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill; Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill; etc.)
The current government’s popularity, if the polls are to be believed, is dropping like a stone. It has only taken them two years to go from a total majority in the polls to running second in approval ratings behind the National party opposition and it is my belief that this drop is justified as a result of their divisive policies and push for race based legislation.
I note that the Minister of Internal affairs, Ms Mahuta’s lawyers are now trying to suppress Minister Mahuta’s Cabinet papers containing her claims about advice from Crown Law, even though her office authorised the public release of the papers last year!
They are trying to prevent the public or the High Court being able to refer to what Ms Mahuta was telling her Cabinet colleagues when they decided to adopt the Three Waters proposals.
Just what is Ms Mahuta trying to hide?
Her papers put up Treaty-based interests of Maori as the reason for a bizarre un-democratic corporate structure plus foundational recognition of Māori customs and superstitions in law, to drive water infrastructure spending and investment decisions.
And now not only is the Minister trying to hide the papers that show some of the bizarre reasoning behind the Three Waters proposals but the government is starting to spend $2.5 billion of taxpayers money to bribe councils to support the theft of the ratepayers assets.
Have no doubts about this proposal the claims of retaining ratepayer ownership are in my opinion blatantly untrue as stated above.