Community
When 570 signatures were delivered to the Invercargill City Council on Thursday as part of a petition against Three Waters, a strong passionate crowd packed the lobby to back up their concerns.
Deputy Mayor Nobby Clark was there to accept the petition on behalf of Groundswell and the Invercargill City Ratepayer and Residents Association.
The petition follows one of many public meetings held around the country, including in Invercargill on June 9, by Groundswell, and asking councils to discontinue any further funding by LGNZ.
Groundswell also wants councils to hold a binding referendum on the issue of Three Waters, but Nobby told the group that wouldn’t achieve anything.
The Government had already mandated it, and despite two previous attempts himself to try and move his council away from the status quo regarding Three Waters – so far he has been unsuccessful.
The first was asking the council to opt out of Three Waters until the community had been consulted. The second was asking councillors to join the ‘Communities 4 Local Democracy’ breakaway group, separate from LGNZ. There are currently 31 councils in the group.
Nobby explained how Invercargill City councillors are very much split down the middle on the issue.
Moving away from LGNZ was not worthwhile because that group was already on the back foot – he believes the stronger option was for councils to join the breakaway group.
Nobby also believes that the community needs to be consulted, and he will be asking for a new motion on that at council as well – but it needs the support of four other councillors to make it work.
One passionate farmer got up and spoke at the rally and a plea to the Government to humble themselves, saying Three Waters was an asset grab.
“This must top, or we are going to be a country of the past.”
Nobby summed up Three Waters at the end by saying the issue wasn’t about who had ownership of the water assets, but who had control.
“Three Waters has been a horrible tale. Everything we do we pay for.”
He warned rates would start to increase over the coming years because of it, and that wasn’t fair as Invercargill was in a much better position than many other councils with its water infrastructure.
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