Hi folks!

PROTEST AGAINST SECRET PUBLIC-PRIVATE- PARTNERSHIP CONFERENCE PUSHING PRIVATISATION OF THE AUCKLAND REGION'S WATER SERVICES BY UNITED WATER!

WHEN: Wednesday 28 August

TIME: 2.00pm - 4.30pm

WHERE:Outside the Carlton Hotel Corner of Mayoral Drive and Vincent St

GIVE THE POLITICIANS AND PRIVATISERS A MESSAGE THEY CAN'T IGNORE!

DON'T PAY YOUR WATER BILL!

(Copies of the latest WPG leaflet/letter to Metrowater can be downloaded from our website: www.water-pressure-group.org.nz )

How dare a secret conference be held behind the public's back to push water privatisation via public-private- partnerships?

The Water Pressure Group was dead right! There is a secret water privatisation agenda via public- private-partnerships (PPPs). That's why we challenged the Auckland City Elections last year - to expose this!

Nobody in the media who was contacted about this Conference knew a thing about it. The public, knew nothing about it.

Who seems to be playing a key role in organising this conference is KPMG Corporate Finance.

The Conference appears to be pushing PPPs generally - haven't had time to read and digest the material. What the WPG is particularly concerned with, obviously is the push to privatise our water services.

We note that there are no keynote speakers putting the other side of the PPP story!

The Labour Government have proven that they are not to be trusted on water privatisation.

Beware the 'weasel' words over public 'ownership'!

Why would multinational water companies bother spending millions of dollars buying up the water services infrastructure, when for the far cheaper cost of a long term lease, they can cream off the profits and send them overseas from operating and managing that water services infrastructure?

Labour MP David Cunliffe, when asked before the election if the Papakura District Council's public-private-partnership with water multinational consortium United Water was a form of privatisation, he said:

"I don't know"

Really?

How come he is now the keynote Labour Government speaker at a secret conference on Public-Private- Partnerships, at which United Water are presenting a keynote address:

"International Case Study of the Adelaide Water Sector - Developing a successful risk sharing partnership with the private sector."

United Water of course are made up of two of the three biggest water multinational companies in the world - Vivendi and RWE (who took over Thames Water in 2000).

PPPs are the main form of water privatisation internationally and that is the model being pushed internationally at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

The Local Government Bill would still allow such United Water contracts for up to 15 years.

According to "Project News" from Simpson Grierson which was made available at the Conference -

"The Local Government Bill, which is expected to be introduced into parliament shortly, and other proposed legislation implementing transport reform, will add some impetus to the emergence of a large number of PPPs, by providing a statutory framework for some key aspects, such as private sector funding."

IF YOU'RE OPPOSED TO WATER PRIVATISATION AND YOU CAN MAKE IT - BE THERE TOMORROW!

2.00pm - 4.30pm!

Penny Bright Media Spokesperson Water Pressure Group (Auckland)

Ph (09) 846 9825 Mob 025 2666 552

Scanned copies of key documents from the:

"Establishing and Funding Public and Private Sector Partnerships Practical lessons from overseas applied to NZ"

Conferenz

Public and Private Sector Partnerships
27 th & 28 th August 2002, Carlton Hotel, Auckland

AGENDA
Day One: 27th August 2002

8.30 Registration and refreshments

9.00 Opening remarks from the Chairperson
Mick Lilley, Head of Government Business, Division Director
Infrastructure Banking Group, Macquarie Bank (Australia)

9.10 Effectively developing a user pays approach and effective
governance of PPP projects
Clement Fisk, Partner, Opus International Consultants

10.00 Constitutional Concerns and obstacles to effective PPP's and
the role of the RMA in
such partnerships
Robert Enright, Partner, KPMG Legal

10.50 Morning Break

11.10 Panel Discussion :The role of government in funding
infrastructure in NZ
Jo Brosnahan, Chief Executive, Auckland Regional Council
Michael Barnett, Chief Executive, Auckland Regional Chamber
of Commerce Industry Inc Mike Caird, Director Investment
Banking, ABN AMRO New Zealand

12.10 International Case Study - Assessing the development and
implementation of standard PPP funding model in the UK
Margaret Mabbett, Associate Director, KPMG Corporate
Finance

1.00 Lunch

2.00 Panel Discussion: Developing an effective strategy to
develop NZ's infrastructure to enhance business and public sector services
Raveen Jaduram, Operations Manager, Metrowater
Richard Maher, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure
Auckland Mick Lilley, Head of Government Business,
Division Director Infrastructure Banking Group, Macquarie
Bank

3.00 International Case Study: Assessing whether a PPP is
appropriate when applying
PPP's to national infrastructure projects - the importance
of setting up the model before involving the private
sector Chris Bunny, Projects Leader, Auckland Regional
Council

3.50 Afternoon Break

4.10 International Trends in successfully encouraging private
sector investment to
develop infrastructure assets - organising effective debt
and equity financing Mick Lilley, Head of Government
Business, Division Director Infrastructure Banking Group,
Macquarie Bank

5.10 Close of Day One & Networking Drinks

Conferenz

Public and Private Sector Partnerships
27 th & 28 h August 2002, Carlton Hotel, Auckland

AGENDA
Day Two: 28th August 2002

Conference reconvenes

8.50 opening remarks from the Chairperson
Graham Brooke, Partner, KPMG

9.00 international Case Study of the Adelaide Water Sector -
Developing a successful
risk sharing partnership with the private sector
Brian Saunders, Regional Manager, United Water
International (Australia)

10.00 Developing Policy to Facilitate Public and Private Sector
Partnerships
Hon Roger Sowry, Deputy Leader, The National Party

10.50 Morning Break

11.10 International Roads Case Study: Over view of the National
Roads programme in
Ireland and the opportunities for private sector
involvement Liam Duffy, Associate Director KPMG Corporate
Finance

11.50 Managing the commercial and legal risks of international and
local private/ public
sector partnership agreements
Bill Loutit, Partner, Simpson Grierson
Mike Weatherall, Partner, Simpson Grierson
Andrew Lewis, Partner, Simpson Grierson

12.30 Lunch

1.30 UK Experiences: Delivering value for money for PPP
Mike Brooks, Director, Serco Capital
t.. Case study: Rodney District Council's experience with PPP:
Developing a PPP project
onsulting and i nvolving the community early in the
development of a PPP Wayne Donnelly, Chief Executive
Officer, Rodney District Council

3.10 Afternoon Break

3.30 Government Address: Infrastructure's role in the growth and
innovation strategy
David Cunliffe, Chair of the Commerce Committee,
Government MP for Titirangi

4.10 Close of Conference

United Water - Public and Private Sector Partnerships - Conferenz

United Water - Applying this model to NZ Cont.

Key Differences to Adelaide Model

- Private sector provision generally under Service Type Contract

- Little empowerment to the contractor with decision making and risks remaining with the Client

- Truly performance based contracts rare

- Private sector providers are generally small multi sectored service providers with limited expertise in the water industry a.. Lack of acceptance by the customers

United Water - Applying this model to NZ Cont.

Where could this model be used

- Major centers such as Auckland and Wellington

- Rural Councils

- Combination of a number of adjacent Councils

28 August 2002

9. Applying this to the New Zealand Water Sector

The New Zealand water industry is more fragmental than that in South Australia, however there are a number of key similarities which make the Adelaide contracting model ideally suited to the New Zealand water industry.

The required infrastructure is largely existing and is public owned;

There is a desire to retain assets in public ownership;

Management functions are largely carried out by government or semi-government organisations;

Provision of services are generally loss making;

Asset management and long term planning in the past has been deficient resulting in significant unfunded asset replacement liabilities in the near future; and

Ever increasing costs to consumers.

In New Zealand a large proportion of the water sector service provision is delivered by the private sector under various forms of service type contracts. In these contracts the management and decision making and risks are largely provided by the client. The Adelaide Outsourcing Contract fundamentally differs from this by empowering United Water to effectively manage the operations and drive efficiency gains. The typical service providers in New Zealand are unlikely at present to have the skills, resources and technology available to successfully deliver a truly performance based contract such as the Adelaide Contract.

There appears to be a reluctance by New Zealand consumers to embrace the private sector in the provision of their water services. Their main concern is that the private sector will profit from provision of a basic need. It is true that the private sector does seek to make profits, but in engaging the private sector these profits will be derived at a cost to the consumer lower than the public sector provision and will be only realised by delivering efficiency gains which have been proven to be not able to be delivered by the public sector. With an Adelaide type contract, these profits can not be derived from deferral of maintenance or reduction of service provision.

10.Conclusion

The New Zealand water industry is experiencing cost increases. To contain these costs and provide for future generations it must consider reforms and strategic partnerships with the private sector, and we believe that the proven reform experience in Adelaide including the Outsourcing Contract warrants serious consideration.

ENDS

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