Yes I've seen the water crises in the Fillipines so dont mind paying a few extra bucks to secure ours, but I was a little taken back with the bill for $1000 that came in the post from a Maori named company "Tiaki Wai" that is now in charge of water supply.
I wasn't consuled by what Chris Bishop published on media:
"Like many people in Lower Hutt I am very worried about Tiaki Wai, the new water infrastructure entity for Wellington and the Hutt. Yesterday the Commerce Commission announced they’ll be undertaking additional regulation of Tiaki Wai, which I strongly support.
The Commission says the additional scrutiny is warranted because of “long-standing and well-known challenges including ageing infrastructure, service performance issues, and planned significant investment.” They say “we consider that there are foundational matters that need to be addressed by Tiaki Wai to enable it to develop the capacity and capability to improve delivery and restore confidence to Wellingtonians, as quickly as possible.”
I think most people would agree with that.
All of the new water entities are regulated, but the Commission says
“We consider that there is evidence that the risks to consumer outcomes are higher for Tiaki Wai than for other regulated suppliers. Therefore, additional regulation is required for Tiaki Wai now.”
So what does all this mean? Tiaki Wai will have to:
1. Regularly publish information on faults, service performance and investment delivery so Wellingtonians can see whether its performance is getting better over time
2. Provide more information about its asset management. It must also provide regular updates on the delivery of investments and improvement plans. This will help consumers understand how money is being spent and what is being achieved.
3. Independent experts will assess key plans and forecast expenditure to provide assurance that investment is targeted to the right priorities, represents value for money and can realistically be delivered.
4. Assess its asset management capability, identify areas for improvement, and publicly report on its plans and progress to improve.
People are rightly worried about price. On that, the Commission says:
“With the steep price increases signalled in the Tiaki Wai Water Services Strategy, it is natural to ask whether we should step in to directly regulate pricing in Wellington. That may happen in the future but making good decisions about pricing needs good information. Developing that information is a key focus of the package of additional economic regulation for Tiaki Wai.
We want Tiaki Wai to succeed and to establish itself in a way that supports better outcomes for consumers over the long-term. There is a lot of work ahead to get Wellington’s water infrastructure back to an acceptable standard, and effective regulation is a big part of that work programme.
The Commerce Commission has access to a broad regulatory toolkit, and we will not hesitate to consider recommending that stronger measures be imposed by the Minister, if we see the need.”
I thought Chris Bishop is our representative in Parliament. Surely I must be mistaken if he is worried about Taki Wai!
I don't get it, but like Isrealites who had to pay a person tax to the Romans, I have to just pay it.
A sign in Lower Hutt. And our mayor is Samoan,Fauono Ken Laban. Read into that what you want.
