Could water be privatised here?

[king1]

The citizens of Wellington will be very thankful...

I'm not sure where this privatisation argument comes from to be honest - it's pretty clear in the legislation that ownership of assets and control of pricing is to be retained.

and the ability to contract out is from the Local Government act 2002 and  been around through successive governments


All I can say is this government campaigned hard on undoing Labours attempts at addressing structural issues in New Zealand -  National better have some solutions by the time the next election comes around...

The biggest issue with 3 waters was the assets were essentially taken away from council ownership and there was a provision in the clauses that meant it could be sold off if enough agreed to it.
There should have never been any provision to begin with, perhaps it is nothing to worry about, but it was enough concern for me to see that such a provision even existed.

Another issue is that some councils managed their water infrastructure well and had little to no debt.
With three waters, it would mean that those who had a good, well managed system would end up paying up more to prop up councils who managed it bad.
So if you were paying more for your water in a poorly run region, you may end up paying less, but others who paid less currently will end up paying more to prop up other regions.

Also regarding storm water, waste water etc. If you had a problem under the three waters scheme, i.e blocked storm water drain, you have to call your regional water authority which may not even be your home city. Its much better for local council to monitor and manage this.

well the first point you make would seem to contradict the legislation I linked so I would like to see the actual evidence of that.

as for the second point, we are in the infrastructural mess we are in precisely because the existing system of authorities managing their own water systems is broken and not working, case in point Wellington...

The infrastructure of New Zealand should not be left to the whims of councils that are elected periodically, with an incentive to minimise Rates increases...