Carterton Enters Wai+T Water Talks

Thursday, 22 May 2025, 6:03 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

Carterton District Council will progress work on a Wairarapa-Tararua water services entity.

Councillors met on Thursday morning to decide the path forward and, similar to Masterton, would also be negotiating conditions that ensured its ratepayers were protected against price standardisation.

Submissions to the council’s consultation were 70% in favour of a Wairarapa-Tararua entity, however concerns were expressed about potential loss of control, the ability of the proposed organisation to deliver economies of scale, and cost standardisation.

Councillor Steve Laurence said successive councils had put Carterton in a good position with its water infrastructure and he was concerned that Carterton water users would end up “paying for other people who haven’t been so focused”.

He and other councillors agreed that sufficient safeguards needed to be built into negotiations to address Carterton’s concerns.

Councillors also agreed to continue working on a standalone water services delivery plan.

“If we hit a red line in negotiations we’ve got to have a Plan B,” Mayor Ron Mark said.

Carterton council chief executive Geoff Hamilton agreed and said a Plan B was also needed if another council pulled out of the proposal at a late stage.

One of the conditions Carterton District Council would be seeking was non-standardisation of charges for at least 10 years.

They would also be seeking a consistent measure on how much debt each participating council could bring into the new joint entity.

Hamilton said if a large portion of debt headroom was used up on day one, it would restrict the delivery of new infrastructure.

Councillor Lou Newman said iwi representation at a governance level was a “non-negotiable”, and this also found favour with other councillors.

Unlike Masterton, which had signalled two “off ramps” where it could pull out of the joint entity talks in July and August, Carterton would have a single exit point at the end of June.

This gave more certainty to partner councils, Hamilton said.

“The risk of any council pulling out will collapse a joint Wai+T entity,” he said.

He said Carterton District Council would need to reconvene and reconsider its decision if another council exited the entity after June.

Carterton councillors in attendance unanimously agreed to pursue a 10-year prohibition on price standardisation across current council districts to protect Carterton ratepayers from cross-subsidising neighbours; a cap on how much debt each council can transfer into the joint entity, based on a consistent debt-to-revenue measure; provisions to ensure Carterton retains a fair voice on the shareholder council, with representation proportional to water connections; an expectation that iwi from each district were also represented on the new governance structures; and provisions to help manage the capital investment expectations of participating councils.

Mark said Carterton had done what was right regarding water investment over the years “and paid the price fiscally and politically ... the pain has been for substantial gain".

“We’ve made generational investments in our water infrastructure — and we owe it to our ratepayers to make sure that effort isn’t undermined.

“Our decision today reflects our confidence in a joined-up, regional approach, while demanding fairness, equity, and accountability in how this new entity will operate.”

Local Government Minister Simon Watts sent a letter to councils on Wednesday saying he expected councils to be “actively considering working with and supporting their neighbouring councils, especially smaller and rural councils, particularly given there is no requirement for price harmonisation under Local Water Done Well”.

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