Under the Three Waters reforms there is a direct and unbreakable chain of command which flows from the Ministry of Local Government to the Māori Advisory Group via Taumata Arowai to control the four new Water Services Entities (WSEs).
Does this give control of the WSE’s to the Mahuta family?
The WSEs will control the day-to-day management of the operations of the Three Waters reforms and we have been repeatedly told they will be completely independent, working at arm’s length from the complicated bureaucracy.
The Ministry of Local Government, under the Minister Nanaia Mahuta, has appointed Tipa Mahuta as the Chairperson of the Maori Advisory Group for the Three Waters reforms.
However, it is made clear in legislation that the water regulator Taumata Arowai has to jump when the Māori Advisory Group says jump. When it — and Tipa as chairperson — speaks, Taumata Arowai has a statutory obligation to listen and act on that advice.
And the clincher is that Taumata Arowai directly regulates the Water Services Entities. In short, if Tipa Mahuta chooses, she can — as chair of the Māori Advisory Group — call the shots throughout each level of water management and eventually she is answerable to the Minister, her sister Nanaia Mahuta.
Nanaia Mahuta and Grant Robertson have assured the public that co-governance applies only at the higher strategic level — where equal numbers of mana whenua members and council representatives appoint the Regional Representative Groups for the four vast regional entities — but not at the lower operational level (i.e. the WSEs).
As it happens, the ministers’ assertion about co-governance appears to be entirely correct — but it is only half the story. They failed to add that the WSEs will be ultimately controlled by Tipa Mahuta and her advisory group members on one hand and the strategic oversight provided by Te Mana o te Wai statements on the other. And only iwi can provide these statements.
Or to put it another way, the Water Services Entities have been placed in a chokehold. They won’t be “co-governed” but they will certainly be “iwi governed” — and to within an inch of their lives.
Careful analysis of the Three Waters command structure shows the following:
We have been told that co-governance does not apply to the Water Services Entities (the operating level of Three Waters). But what does apply at that level? As it turns out, Taumata Arowai will directly regulate the Water Services Entities.
And what role or powers does the Māori Advisory Group have? It has statutory powers to advise the board of Taumata Arowai on Māori interests and, per s17(3) [of Taumata Arowai — the Water Services Regulator Act], the board must have regard for that advice and must demonstrate in its annual report how it’s had regard.
So the board of Taumata Arowai ignores Tipa at its peril. And good luck to the Water Services Entities if they don’t comply with its regulator, Taumata Arowai.
And, anyway, if Tipa isn’t getting her way, she can always call her sister, the Minister of Local Government.
Understanding the role that Te Mana o Te Wai strategy statements play in controlling how the WSEs function is also vital to coming to grips with how much power iwi will have over them.
The Six Principles of Te Mana o te Wai mean that, through their statements, iwi representatives will have wide-ranging powers that lack strict definitions and limits — or democratic protections. They include:
These three principles alone offer a very expansive brief and iwi will have wide latitude in formulating their Te Mana o te Wai statements. Consequently, they will wield immense power over how the WSEs operate.
For instance, the Water Services Entities Bill, introduced by Mahuta in early June, gives mana whenua whose territory includes “a freshwater body in the service area of a Water Services Entity” the right to provide that entity with “a Te Mana o te Wai statement for water services”.
This statement can be provided “by an individual iwi or hapū, or by a group of iwi or hapū”. It can be summarily ditched and a new statement provided at any time.
There was “fierce internal debate” at meetings of the working group Mahuta set up late last year over the right to issue Te Mana o te Wai statements.
The group itself was co-governed, with equal numbers of iwi representatives and council members. The council representatives, fought to have some input but it was made clear that only iwi would be able to determine the substance of the statements.
In effect it seems that this will reduce the Water Services Entities to “mechanical” managers:
So there is no ‘co-governance’ at the operating level. [But] WSEs need to follow Te Mana o te Wai statements prepared by iwi — and the regulator charged with ensuring compliance is the minister’s sister, Tipa.
The chances of mainstream journalists questioning on the basic results of the analysis seem low. The mainstream media has said repeatedly that the criteria in the $55 million media fund mandating the promotion of a radical view of the Treaty as a 50:50 partnership are insignificant and do not compromise their independence with regard to reporting on matters such as Three Waters.
However, their unwillingness to investigate and question the power structures of Three Waters — which is the most contentious political issue for the government right now — certainly seem to back up the public perception that they are now just a government funded propaganda tool given the criteria they signed up to as a condition of receiving handsome amounts of government cash.
Section 3 part 3 of the criteria for the funding requires applicants to actively promote the principles of Partnership, Participation and Active Protection under Te Tiriti o Waitangi acknowledging Māori as a Te Tiriti partner. Even though there is no partnership agreement under the Treaty of Waitangi documentation.
This requirement is no more than support for the current Labour government’s propaganda around a Treaty partnership and their attendant undemocratic push for a co-governance arrangement with Iwi based on this wrongful claim of a partnership.
All that aside Three Waters undemocratically gives control of our water to a race based tribal elite.