Council water supply systems won't be privatised under proposed changes to the Local Government Act, Parliament was told today.
The Green Party has been saying they will be, because one of the proposed changes is to extend the contract period of public-private partnerships from the current 15 years to 35 years.
The contracts involve infrastructure like water and sewerage systems.Finance Minister Bill English, replying to questions from the Greens, said the contract period was the only thing that would change.
"I can confirm that water assets won't be privatised as a result of local government restructuring," he said."The 35 years makes a good deal more sense because the life of water assets is much longer than 15 years."
Local Government Minister Rodney Hide also said there were no plans to privatise water assets."Ownership of water assets under the proposals would revert to the councils at the end of any management agreement, thus councils retain ultimate public ownership," he said.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the change meant New Zealand was going down the same road Britain did about 30 years ago, when water systems were privatised with disastrous results.Mr Hide said there were already 1800 private water supply systems registered with the Ministry of Health, and they had existed under the previous government through policies supported by the Greens.
The change to the contract period is part of the proposals Mr Hide announced yesterday.The main aim is to make councils focus on their core business and produce financial reports that ratepayers can understand.
Legislation is being prepared and the changes will be enacted before the next local government elections in October 2010.
