Hipkins puts Three Waters on his hit list

PRIME Minister Chris Hipkins has given his strongest indication yet that the government he leads will make changes to the deeply divisive Three Waters reforms.

Announcing the removal of the reforms’ principal architect, Nanaia Mahuta, from the local government portfolio as part of a cabinet reshuffle, Hipkins also said he is “leaving open the possibility of a reset there”.

remove or attempt to defang some of the unpopular elements of an unwieldy reform agenda. However, commitment to the Three Waters reforms – for which the first of two major pieces of enabling legislation has passed into law already – appeared to be a bedrock position.

We will take a close look at the Three Waters reforms.

Chris Hipkins Prime Minister

OUSTED: Nanaia Mahuta was removed from the local government portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle.

His predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, signalled before Christmas that the government was likely to reassess its priorities and either

Hipkins said: “We will take a close look at the Three Waters reforms” led by newly appointed

Minister for Local Government Kieran McAnulty.

Hipkins said there is still a “pressing need for reform and ... investment” in water infrastructure, but the government, he said, will “look closely to make sure we have got those reforms right”.

Most contentious are a twotiered governance structure intended to give a strong Māori voice to water asset management, and the creation of four new water entities that will take over management and control of assets currently owned by dozens of local bodies around New Zealand.

The Māori co-governance element has stoked a race-based debate among some opponents, while others have questioned the structure that creates an overarching co-governing board, a second board with water asset experience, and then a senior management team under both boards.

The shift in Hipkins’ stance comes at the same time as the National Party, which has promised to “repeal and replace” the Three Waters legislation, continues to struggle with the detail of its alternative prescription.

National has unequivocally said it will scrap co-governance, but its plans to leave assets in local ownership and to allow a much larger number of water entities are understood to be unsettled.