Water Services Legislation Bill

The closing date for submissions is Sunday, 12 February 2023

The Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Water Services Legislation Bill.

This bill is the second of a suite of bills to reform New Zealand’s drinking-water, wastewater and stormwater services—the “three waters” services. Currently, these services are mostly provided by local councils. Under the new regime, water services will be provided by four new publicly-owned water services entities.

This bill amends the Water Services Entities Act 2022, which provides for the creation of the new entities services entities. This bill would empower the new entities by setting out their functions, powers, obligations, and oversight arrangements, including:

• additional, detailed implementation arrangements for the new water services entities, including provisions relating to the transfer of assets, liabilities, and other matters from local authorities to new water services entities
• service delivery functions and powers, to enable water services entities to deliver water services in place of local authorities
• regulatory functions and powers, to enable water services entities to make rules, plans, and other instruments relating to water services, and engage in compliance and enforcement activities
• pricing and charging arrangements for water services
• detailed changes to local government legislation, the Water Services Act 2021, the Resource Management Act 1991, and other legislation relating to regulation and service delivery of water services

The committee is also considering another bill related to water service reform—the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill. That bill is about independent oversight of the water services entities. You can find the link to the call for submissions on that bill below.

Public submissions close at 11.59pm on Sunday, 12 February 2023.

Submissions from local government—including local and regional councils—close at 11.59pm on Friday, 17 February 2023.

This bill is available online from the ‘Related links’ panel.

What do you need to know?

• Submissions are publicly released and published to the Parliament website. Only your name or organisation’s name is required on a submission. Please keep your contact details separate, as if they are included on the submission they will become publicly available when the submission is released.
• If you wish to include information of a private or personal nature in your submission you should discuss this with the clerk of the committee before submitting.
• If you wish to speak to your submission, please state this clearly.

Further guidance on making a submission can be found from the ‘How to make a submission’ link in the ‘Related documents’ panel.

If you have any questions about your submission or the submission process, please contact the Committee Staff through the contact details provided on this page.