Kawerau mayor Malcolm Campbell has described the Government's Three Waters Reform as the 'biggest theft of public assets since the 1840s land confiscations”.

He also urges anyone who has issues with the reforms, or the Water Services Entities Bill before Parliament, to contact their MP.

The Water Services Entities Bill, the first of a suite of bills to reform New Zealand's drinking-water, wastewater and stormwater services, is before Parliament.

The closing date for public submissions is July 22.

If passed, it will create four publicly owned entities that will provide water services in place of local authorities, from July 1, 2024.

The Department of Internal Affairs states the Bill sets out the ownership, governance, accountability arrangements relating to these entities and includes essential provisions for ongoing public ownership and engagement, and safeguards against future privatisation.

Kawerau District Council joined the ‘Communities 4 Local Democracies' with 30 other councils.

'We all agree with the need for reform. But we do not agree with the current reform model whereby the ownership and management of Council's Three Waters assets are centralised into mega entities. We are committed to finding a better solution and working model.”

During annual plan deliberations on Tuesday, Campbell said throughout the consultation period, the community had again raised that they wanted the council to retain the three waters assets and operation.

'We've been getting emails from all sorts of groups about what Kawerau District Council should be doing. We have listened ... and joined Communities 4 Local Democracy due to that.”

Kawerau was obliged to conform with Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta's requests for information about its Three Waters assets.

'We might not agree with what [the Government] are proposing but we are obliged to work in good faith with the Government. We are bound by statute.”

He said that now was the time to talk to the people who had the ears of those who make the decisions.

'If people want to hold this up, don't ask Kawerau District Council or any other council for that matter,” he said.

'You've got local MPs and they are the important people to talk to. Humans have got to start pushing back. Stand up for your rights.”

As far as co-governance was concerned, he said, 'our local iwi certainly won't even be in the running for any discussion on this.”

'I'm not saying that [the council] have given up. We are members of a group of 31 local authorities that are fighting back on this, but we are mandated by the minister who has got an agenda.”

He said people in the community felt that the council had been withholding information about what was happening.

'We haven't actually known, from one day to the next, what was going on, up until the mandate.”

He said it had been suggested that the council should pull out of its membership of Local Government New Zealand, which has been perceived as siding with the Government over the Three Waters Reform.

'That is not an option,” he said. 'They are our family. Like any other big family, we squabble and argue and don't always agree, but to [pull out] would be a travesty for this council,” Mr Campbell said. 'That's where our numbers lie.”

LGNZ president Stuart Crosby explained to Ōpōtiki District Council last month, when Mayor Lyn Riesterer proposed cutting its membership fees, that the group was not 'on the side of the Government” it was simply taking a less adversarial approach toward central Government so it could ensure the best deal for councils.

'We have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure that, in the Government's model, which we have never agreed with and still don't today, that we can claw back as much as we can,” Mr Crosby said.

'As a result of that, Minister Mahuta has made changes. That would not have happened unless we were in that advocacy space right at the beginning.”

Details of the bill and instructions on how to make submissions are available to view at www.parliament.nz.

'We encourage people to talk directly to the three Members of Parliament who represent the Kawerau and Eastern Bay region. It is central Government who are mandating the Three Waters reform and they are the ones who now need to hear the voices of the people.”

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air