Wai Hononga Water Company Significance and Engagement Policy Consultation

Would you like to tell the Water Company whether you agree with the rules they have put together with how and when they will engage with you ?

We have sought legal advice about this document as the Water Company must legally follow the rules set in this document. The following are some of the issues that were raised with the proposed document.

A clause in Section 4.1 and the 3^rd bullet point reads:

“Supporting mana whenua, hapū and iwi to uphold their tikanga, rangatiratanga,

kaitiakitanga, mana motuhake and mana whakahaere aspirations through

collaboration, co-design, resourcing and shared decision-making in matters relating to

te taiao, with their kaitiaki responsibilities”.

We will speak to this clause in our verbal submission, but you may like to ask that an English translation of this clause is added, so water consumers and ratepayers have an understanding of what these Maori words mean.

Clause 6.6 covers Community Expectations.

• There are 11 points of the types of groups of people the Water Company wants to reach. They do not mention Water Consumers. You may want to ask them to add a bullet point with Water Consumers.

This wording is in the Wai Hononga Statement of Expectations Document:

“Reporting annually, at an appropriate level of detail, on engagement activities and how feedback has informed decision making”.

What is in the Statement of Expectations is meant to be in the Significance and Engagement policy. You may want to ask that annual reporting of how Community feedback has informed their decisions is added to the policy.

Table 1 – Indicative Level of Consultation – Page 10

• There are 5 boxes of categories with medium to low, high to medium, or a considerable impact. There is not a box which will engage with you about Debt. Would you like a box added that specifically mentions when the Water Company will engage with you about debt. The Water Company is expected to need to take on a reasonably significant amount of debt to meet the new water regulations the Government has set.

In Clause 9.4 Where engagement May Not Occur – Page 15

• The Water Company has a section stating they MAY not need to engage with you with Complex Financial or commercial arrangements. Just because arrangements are complex does not mean they automatically contain sensitive financial information, or would prejudice a competitive tender process. Complex arrangements may involve public-private partnerships, which water consumers, and ratepayers, may need to know more about. Complex financial or commercial arrangements may be more likely to have a high impact on costs or debt. Not all of the detail of arrangements may be sensitive financial information. You may like to mention that you don’t think Complex arrangement should automatically be excluded from engagement with the community.

The link to the Wai Hononga Water Company Consultation is here:

https://haveyoursay.npdc.govt.nz/wai-hononga-draft-significance-engagement-policy

 

The consultation closes on Wednesday 30^th September, at 11.59pm