Charge on for use of NZ’S water

"Commercial water users should pay.'' Geoff Simmons

Gareth Morgan wants to charge commercial users of water for every litre they use - even farmers.

Morgan’s The Opportunities Party (TOP) has launched its fresh water policy, the ninth of 13 planned policies.

It stipulates that public water access - the stuff that comes out of your tap - should be protected, but every other litre should be sold at market price.

A percentage of profits should go to Maori as the rightful owners of the water under the Treaty of Waitangi.

‘‘We squander the very lifeblood of our ecosystem by giving away water, virtually for free, to overseas companies, agriculture, and industry,’’ the party said.

‘‘Water consents will only be allocated if they are environmentally and socially sustainable. There will be no grandparenting based on past usage.’’ The policy would also charge polluters for any damage they cause.

Much of the profits would be used to cover water infrastructure costs for public use - something that ratepayers currently pay for.

‘‘Commercial water users should pay to use a precious and scarce public resource, just like they pay for any other business input,’’ deputy leader Geoff Simmons said.

After infrastructure and consents are set up, fresh water is not currently charged for by the litre on a national scale. Local councils can sell consents for billions of litres of water to be taken at a time. There is huge support for charging bottled water companies more to export New Zealand water but charging farmers may be more contentious. The issue became prominent in April of 2016, when the Ashburton District Council offered the rights to 40 billion litres of pure, artesian water to New Zealand Pure Blue Ltd.

Fully 87 per cent of those questioned in a Newshub/reid Research poll said royalties should be charged on fresh water. The Government maintains that the amount of water being used commercially pales in comparison to the amount of water the country produces. ‘‘New Zealand produces 500 trillion litres of water per year. We only use 10 [trillion] - which is 2 per cent,’’ Environment Minister Nick Smith said. Prime Minister Bill English said water did cost farmers because irrigation schemes were very expensive.

‘‘If you talk to the farmers that are operating irrigating schemes, they can tell you how much they cost,’’ English said.

Irrigation NZ said farmers paid huge amounts for irrigation infrastructure and a water tax would hurt everyone.

‘‘’It makes no sense to impose a water tax on one sector when we all use water. Everyone in New Zealand benefits from water so common sense would say a water tax should be applied to everyone who uses it. You can’t just tax people you don’t like, like foreigners bottling it and selling it offshore, or farmers, because you think they’re getting it for free when they’re not,’’ chief executive Andrew Curtis said.

‘‘Applying a water tax to farming will hit New Zealand households because in the end a tax on commercial use would be passed on to domestic consumers. That extra few dollars for low income families promised in last month’s budget? Tax water and all of it - plus some more - would disappear on higher food, energy and travel costs.’’

Most of the country’s consented water is used in Canterbury, Southland, and Otago - 87 per cent in 2010.