Labour needs to accept that their Three Waters agenda is well past saving and the tweaks they’ve made today do nothing to address the key concerns communities have about the reforms, National’s Local Government Spokesperson Simon Watts says.

“Even with these superficial changes, Labour's Three Waters agenda is still fatally flawed.

“According to the Government, local councils will still be the ‘owners’ of their assets – but they won’t actually have any control over them. It’s like saying you own a house but don’t get to decide where to put the furniture.

“Local councils and communities will still lose control of their assets, and the unproductive and divisive co-governance structure remains.

“This is yet another slap in the face for the local voices who have again had their concerns disregarded by this Government that thinks it knows best.

“Labour had the opportunity today to finally admit these broken reforms won’t work, and go back to the drawing board to develop solutions that will actually solve the problems we face, like encouraging councils to collaborate, contract and form CCOs as National has proposed.

“Instead, the Government has fallen back on the same old centralisation and control agenda.

“National will not support reforms that will strip councils and ratepayers of control over their assets and will repeal Labour’s four entity model.”