National chooses to think just as magically as Labour on water infrastructure, taxes and debt

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey · Feb 26, 2023 · 20m

TLDR: National has confirmed it will repeal Three Waters legislation and disestablish the four new water entities set up under the Labour Government’s reforms. National would replace them with a new water regulator and the hope councils will voluntarily charge for water and create their own larger entities able to borrow in their own right to pay for infrastructure. In effect, National wants to push the political pain of applying water charges and extra borrowing down to council level, but create a new centralised bureaucracy that tries to force local government to plan and invest properly…