“With only ten days until an election David Parker is trying to sneak more co-governance past voters and into water rights. He’s wasting his time and taxpayers’ money, in ten days’ time the results will be in and it will be clear that Kiwis have rejected Labour’s co-government agenda,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“It has been revealed that Environment Minister David Parker is pressing ahead with a report which will almost certainly advocate greater rights for Māori over water allocation, setting up a working group to investigate allocation. He’s quietly signed this off while Kiwis are going to the polls to vote in an election where Labour’s division through co-government is a major issue.

“David Parker has no respect for taxpayers. He has also been paying Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) with taxpayers’ money to rush through as much work on Labour’s RMA reforms as possible before the election. He shouldn’t be wasting the money, ACT is going to scrap Labour’s RMA reforms and implement a property-rights based resource management system that incentivises development instead.

“Principled NGOs like Federated Farmers and Fish and Game turned this money down, but they should never have been offered it in the first place.

“This shows how little regard Labour has for the public it is meant to be serving. They’re continuing to push co-governance while Kiwis are meant to be having their say on the future of the country, and they’re continuing to waste their money on projects that they know are unlikely to proceed.

“This speaks to Labour’s principles, they think they know better than Kiwis and will push their agenda no matter what.

“On the other hand, ACT has relentlessly fought for equal rights. We were the first political party to address the issue of co-governance and we’re the only party wholly committed to ensuring New Zealand’s future as a liberal democracy where everyone has the same rights, regardless of ethnicity.

“Only a Party Vote for ACT this election will bring about a government which respects taxpayers and treats all New Zealanders as equals.”

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