Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / The Govt's plan to replace Three Waters

Transcript

The Govt's plan to replace Three Waters · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The government's plan to replace the three Waters legislation has
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: been revealed. Council controlled water organizations will be able to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: leverage up to five hundred percent five times. Basically, they're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: operating revenues through the local government funding agency and they
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: can body up with councils to do this. Councils not
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: necessarily even on their border, so the Commerce Commission will
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: oversee it to make sure there's appropriate investment, maintenance and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: delivery of water infrastructure for consumers' long term. The Auckland
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: councilor Daniel Newman is with me this morning. Good morning Daniel,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan. What do you make of this? Is
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  Speaker 1: this better than three Waters?
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  Speaker 2: Yes? It is. It is because it keeps the assets
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  Speaker 2: within council. It does provide a facility for borrowing to
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  Speaker 2: fund and that facility will be cheaper. It will put
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  Speaker 2: real pressure back on councils in terms of ensuring appropriate
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  Speaker 2: governance of these wars water entities. But I think it's
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a better model than what was proposed by the previous government.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: What does it mean in Auckland for water Care.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what it will mean is that water Care is
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  Speaker 2: able to effectively borrow off the off the council's balance sheets,
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  Speaker 2: so that allows it to be able to access more
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  Speaker 2: more debt. But you know, it would be a cheaper
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  Speaker 2: borrowing facility, and that's quite important because your borrowing capacity
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: is restricted according to your debt to revenue ratio. So
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: at the moment, what would happen if you didn't have
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  Speaker 2: access to cheaper debt? You would have to raise rights
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: rates faster and faster in order to ensure that you
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  Speaker 2: maintain a debt to revenue ratio, which is you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to be basically be taxing my constituents
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  Speaker 2: just to meet a borrowing limits. So I think it's
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  Speaker 2: a better option for for Auckland. Is I think it
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  Speaker 2: will probably be a better option for a lot of
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  Speaker 2: peace around the country.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they reckon you can you know we're borrowing five
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  Speaker 1: times what you take in through your water rates. It
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: would double what the current most cecos would currently do.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Do you do we need Does Aukland need to buddy
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  Speaker 1: up with anyone else?
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  Speaker 2: Auckland won't need to buddy up with anybody, And I'm
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  Speaker 2: quite relieved about that. Auckland is big enough and ugly
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: enough to look after itself. But there will be councils
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: outside of the Auckland region who I'm sure will need
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  Speaker 2: to buddy up. And that's not unworkable. It is complex,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: but it is it is. It is a feasible option
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  Speaker 2: if you can get that partnership relationship through a shareholder's
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  Speaker 2: representative group.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Daniel, very quickly, in one word, can you answer this question?
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  Speaker 1: Wayne Brown's gone to the Herald this morning saying he
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: wants to dethrone Auckland Transport, stripping away the unelected board members' powers,
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  Speaker 1: putting elected representatives in full control. He wants to gut
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  Speaker 1: the place. Do you agree with him? Yes, thanks for
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  Speaker 1: your time.
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  Speaker 2: That is sick.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That's Daniel Newman, the Auckland Counts.
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• 3:06
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• 3:07
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• 3:09
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