New Zealand Government water infrastructure reform programme
The Water Services Reform Programme (formerly known as Three Waters) was a public infrastructure restructuring programme launched by the Sixth Labour Government to centralise the management of water supply and sanitation in New Zealand.[1][2] It originally proposed shifting control of stormwater, drinking water and wastewater management from the country's 67 local councils to several new publicly-owned regional entities by July 2024.[3][4] Details of the proposed reforms were announced in October 2021. The Three Waters reforms were criticised by several mayors and the opposition National and ACT parties.[5][6][7]
From November 2021, a working group of mayors and Māori representatives reviewed issues of representation, governance and accountability, and reported back in March 2022 with 47 recommendations.[8][9] In April 2022, the government accepted 44 of the recommendations. Key changes to the original proposals included providing non-financial shareholdings for councils in the four new water entities, and increased legislative protection against future privatisation of the water assets. Regional representative groups would be established as part of the governance structure, with equal representation of council and tangata whenua. These representative groups would appoint the members of the boards of the four water entities, based on skill and competence.[10]
In April 2023, the Government announced a major overhaul of the Three Waters programme, renaming it the Water Services Reform Programme.[1][11] The proposed four water services entities were expanded into ten entities. These entities will still retain the split governance structure consisting of both local council and mana whenua representatives.[1][2][11]
In late 2023, the newly-formed National-led coalition Government confirmed that it would repeal the Three Waters legislative framework in favour of a new regime that would favour local council control and ownership of water assets and infrastructure.[12][13] On 14 February 2024, the National-led government passed urgent legislation repealing the previous Labour Government's Three Waters legislation.[14]