Proposed water reforms fixes ‘don’t go far enough’
From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Ashburton mayor Neil Brown says proposed changes to the Three Waters Reform haven't gone far enough ahead of the bill’s second reading in parliament.
There were 80,000 submissions on the Water Services Entities Bill, the first of three bills aimed at reforming New Zealand’s water infrastructure and services, including one from the Ashburton District Council.
Parliament’s cross-party Finance and Expenditure Select Committee has considered those submissions and proposed some recommendations to improve the workability of water reform legislation.
Brown said the changes were fairly minor.
“Not a lot of changes that the councils in opposition to Three Waters would like to have seen.
“Having a better representation of rural mayors is a slight plus but it wasn’t the guts of the submissions.”
Ashburton, and the rest of the member councils in the Communities for Local Democracy collective, “will not be backing off” Brown said, especially when an alternative model proposed by mayor Wayne Brown of Auckland has garnered more widespread support.
But the Government is surging ahead with its model, with some new recommended changes likely to be adopted.
One of those is that the Bill requires a mix of rural, provincial, and metropolitan councils on the regional representative group (RRG).
Another recommendation is to remove the limit of members on the RRG, which may make things quite complicated, Neil Brown said.
There will be at least six representatives from the 22 councils in the zone 4 entity, which now needs an even spread of rural, provincial, and metropolitan representatives, and any increase in representatives will also increase the mana whenua representatives under co-governance.
*Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Best way to use leftovers?
I'm sure you've got some excess ham at home or cold roast potatoes.
What are some of your favourite ways to use leftover food from Christmas day? Share below.
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62.5% Summer
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36.1% Winter
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1.4% Other - I'll share below
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