8. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Local Government
Does he stand by all his statements?
Hon RODNEY HIDEDoes the 19 October Cabinet decision to endorse his proposal to “allow the new Auckland Council to determine”—from 2015—“the governance arrangements and asset ownership for the delivery of water services” still stand; if not, when and how was this decision overturned?
Was he referring to the Cabinet’s 19 October decision to allow the new Auckland Council to privatise its water assets, when he told ACT supporters that at Cabinet “you set the agenda”, because “you turn up with your papers”, and “they are too busy with their own stuff they’re not bothered”, and was he disappointed when they woke up and decided to veto his plan to allow all local government water assets to be privatised?
I have never been disappointed in working with this Government, getting on and doing the business, and as that member quite rightly observed, the Labour Government spent 9 years on it and did nothing. There are no plans to privatise water assets in Auckland.
Does he stand by his statement that privatisation of local government assets is a pretend debate, in light of the Government’s decision to allow private ownership of water infrastructure for periods of up to 35 years?
Let me explain this, one more time, for that member: there are no proposals to privatise water in Auckland. The decision is simply this: to take what the Labour Government had in place for many years, which was that one could enter a public-private partnership for 15 years, and to shift it to 35 years to reflect the proper economic life of the asset. If this Government was privatising water, what then was the Labour Government doing with its 15-years proposal?