Letter: No user pays

Dear Editor, ‘Water petition group frustrated by Minister’s refusal to share report’ misattributes the petition with a Select Committee recommendation.

The Keep Our Water Free petition does not ask for ‘reasonable charges on commercial users and penalties for wastage’. The petition respectfully requests that: The collection, treatment, and reticulation of water continues without tariffs and ongoing-charges to users.

To Tatou Vai is currently a commercial entity that can charge customers for the supply of water. The user-pays funding model is set out in law. The petition asks our MPs – our lawmakers – to remove these provisions so that the water authority can focus on providing a reliable service to families, growers and farmers, the community, and private enterprise – this includes small businesses and market vendors. None of these users should pay to access an essential public service. Confusingly, the Select Committee are telling Hon. Albert Nicholas to remove user-pays while at the same time keep users paying.

Justine Matatoa Flanagan

Keep Our Water Free