Parliament Needs to Pass Five Waters to Find Out What is in It

Cranmer's Substack

November 22, 2022

As the government prepares to push the controversial Water Services Entities Bill through its third and final reading in the House under urgency, it has become shockingly evident over recent days that the Prime Minister and her Cabinet have lost their grip on the details of Five Waters.

The first cracks emerged last Wednesday when Mike Hosking interviewed Megan Woods on his breakfast show. Hosking had picked up on public commentary on the select committee report that had aptly renamed the reforms ‘Five Waters’ to acknowledge the report’s recommendation to expand the Te Mana o te Wai mechanism to include geothermal and coastal waters (in addition to freshwater).

Hosking labelled the development “just an idea that hasn’t been signed off, when it is, come back to me and we’ve got a scrap on”. He seemed totally unaware that the Bill was scheduled for its second reading later that day and that Cabinet had in fact signed off on “the idea” months earlier.

When Woods joined Hosking for an interview a little while later, he checked his understanding with the Minister who agreed with his earlier assessment and stated, “The select committee report was the first time I’ve ever heard of the thought of including any more waters into the Three Waters bucket. So this hasn’t even been talked about by Cabinet … The select committee report has to be turned into a Cabinet paper. As the Minister of Energy and Resources, I’d probably have some views on geothermal! … It’s not something we’ve even considered.”

Woods observed that geothermal water was similar to hydro in that it was “non-consumptive” and would therefore raise a number of issues that would require careful consideration were it to be introduced into the Bill. Like Hosking, she appeared to be blissfully unaware that the second reading was scheduled to occur later that day and had seemingly forgotten that she had participated in the Cabinet meeting on 19 April that had approved this specific recommendation.