Spring has truly arrived, but with plenty of snow around recently during the unseasonal cold snap.
The Alexandra Blossom Festival was a great success by all accounts.
Well done to everyone who helped make it happen and to those who participated and provided great entertainment to the crowds.
It’s great to see families enjoying themselves and making the most of the school holidays, which also benefits our local businesses.
Local elections have ended, and hopefully you have exercised your right to have your say in who represents you around the table when decisions are made about you, your family and your community.
There are important conversations to be had on the Government’s current reform programme including Three Waters and winter grazing regulations, and what they mean for local communities.
On October 14, Simon Watts — National’s spokesman for Local Government — and I will be hosting a series of Three Waters meetings throughout the day, including one in Alexandra at 4.30pm.
Labour is ignoring the pleas of local communities by pushing forward with its reforms.
This is despite the Office of the Auditor-General delivering a scathing indictment of their Three Waters reforms.
In a submission to a Parliamentary committee, the Office of the Auditor-General said the proposed Three Waters changes would result in ‘‘a serious diminution in accountability to the public for a critical service’’ and ‘‘no proposed audit scrutiny’’.
The submission delivered a damning analysis of the overlap of proposed governance structures, the public’s lack of access to information to scrutinise the proposed Water Entities, and a lack of performance measures and integration with other reforms and local planning.
The Government has had opportunity after opportunity to consider alternatives to its reforms and the views of local councils.
Still, they’ve decided they know best, and our communities will pay the price.
Their true agenda is one of a centralised, one-size-fits-all model, with less local voice for our communities.
The economic benefits of this model remain unproven, and the alternatives have been ignored.
We would like to hear your thoughts on this critical issue and hope you can join us.
Simon and I will also share National’s views on why the Labour Government’s proposed model doesn’t make sense, won’t work for our communities, and why a future National Government will repeal Labour’s centralised and ideologically driven Three Waters legislation.
There is still time to register your attendance at www.josephmooney.national.org.nz/events.
