Too much water (Patreon)

Kieran McAnulty was given a hospital pass to end all hospital passes. After the Government had passed Three Waters, it still wanted it revamped because everyone hated it and National was successfully turning it into an election issue.

Kieran, as Minister for Local Government, had to go away and figure out a solution that would help. And by help I don't mean turn it into a vote winner, I think his job would've been considered wildly successful if he managed to take the heat out of it.

It's too early to call definitively, but I think he's done it.

Over the weekend, Kieran appeared on Newshub Nation, and Q&A, to talk over what the Government was now proposing and frankly he knocked it out of the park.

When Kieran got up to announce the changes last week, his opening line was "G'day everyone, so here's the guts of it..." then proceeded to explain the Government's case for its water reforms better than anyone has managed to date. Better than previous Ministers, Prime Ministers, better than the fancy-pants communications company that was paid to help message it. He just spoke about it using normal words. You can see the clip here, I particularly like the PM's response, chuckling behind Kieran. I recommend if you have time watching both the Nation and Q&A clips above. Kieran just uses normal words to explain stuff. It's so refreshing.

I had one journalist text me over the weekend after I tweeted out the Nation interview:

Labour has somewhat snookered the Opposition here. By making the case as well as they have, they've made it clear that reform is needed. And that through Labour's reforms the ratepayer will save money, without reform, local councils are going to have to send their rates into the stratosphere just to keep up with the infrastructure.

National's counterplan is basically the status quo. It has said it will repeal whatever Labour does, and give "control" back to local authorities. And it will force them to increase their debt to manage the infrastructure. So National's plan is to make it as expensive as it could possibly be for no gain.

Except in National's head there is a gain. Because the governance of the new entities will be determined by local councils and mana whenua. Because you know, that's what te tiriti says. Don't get confused here, the governance of the entities will not be done by mana whenua, but rather the board who does it will be appointed by both councils and mana whenua.

Seems a small price to pay to ensure that rates are affordable and local councils can manage the infrastructure investment and we adhere to te tiriti commitments. But because the Government lost the narrative war initially, it's starting on the back foot.

"You're ruining democracy!" people have cried. "One person, one vote!" others have moaned.

Except democracy isn't that cut and dried. At a basic level, we have representative democracy which means we don't make the decisions ourselves, we elect people to make decisions on our behalf. But then there is more nuance still. If you own property in more than one TLA, you get to vote in each TLA you have property in. That's not one person, one vote. That's basically 19th century patriarchy where only property owning men got to vote at all. Here landed gentry get more than one vote.

Now you can argue that they deserve more than one vote because they have an interest in different TLAs through their property so should get a say in how its governed.

And that's the fucking point of the co-governance angle of the water reforms.

Māori have a special interest in water. This was determined by the courts as part of the Crown signing te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Basically, National's counter-policy is for ratepayers to pay more for National's racism and commitment to breach its te tiriti obligations.

Because all you're getting that's different is fewer entities, and no mana whenua determination over who should sit on the Board of Governors for each water entity. And I tell you what, I'm a big fan of not racism, even more of a fan of not paying for racism. So you'll be shocked to learn that I think National's proposal is utterly embarrassing.

My hot take is that Kieran has successfully defused the tension around Labour's reforms, and now put the onus back on National to explain why they keep beating the anti-co-governance drum (hint: racism), and why people should have to pay more in rates for National's racism.

I mean come on people, if you are going to be racist, you don't need to pay for it. You can just go and listen to Sean Plunket for free and then read any subsequent Facebook comments.