New Zealanders Will Pay More and Receive Less Under Three Waters
“The current model is overly complex and sets impossible objectives. For example, there will be just four water companies across the entire country, with each servicing incredibly diverse urban and rural populations using dozens of discrete, unconnected networks. To suggest that it can deliver better services for less money is just one of the problems with the new model.
“Getting water safely into homes, businesses, marae and everywhere else is a complex challenge that can’t be solved just by adding a layer of complex management on top of what’s already in place.
“Our submission provides fresh ideas for better water. Our ideas aren’t complicated or unique; they’re just ways of improving on what’s mostly been done successfully for decades.
“There is a better way to achieve the Government’s objectives and we want to work in partnership with them to ensure that happens.”
The Communities 4 Local Democracy submission is now available online at www.communities4localdemocracy.co.nz
Key points from the Communities 4 Local Democracy He hapori mō Manapori submission include:
The Government’s proposed model is highly complex, novel and untested; the water companies will have potentially competing socio-economic objectives; water company management will be centralised while the operations will be dispersed; there are unproven cost efficiencies from administrative merger
Economic regulation can improve water services and consumer welfare given the right ownership and governance structure – which is not evident in this model
The regulatory model will not achieve its objectives due to problems with the design and accountability of the water companies – there will be challenges improving the availability of information; incentivising management and governance to optimise costs and quality of services; addressing socio-cultural outcomes; and the costs of regulation are likely to exceed the benefits
Public ownership and governance model must be improved to enable effective economic regulation – other models could deliver direct accountability, information disclosure and benchmarking, incentive-based regulation and reduce the costs of regulation.