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Speaker 1: Three waters is dead. Local water done well is here

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Speaker 1: In part of the new plan is that one council's

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Speaker 1: cut a deal with each other and two they will

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Speaker 1: be able to borrow more for less through the Local

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Speaker 1: Government Funding Agency. Five times they're operating revenue, which in

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Speaker 1: theory means the right risers aunts bad water. In New Zealand,

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Speaker 1: Chief Executive Jillian Blythe is with us.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning Mike.

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Speaker 1: Do you have a view of this new plan or

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Speaker 1: do you just run the.

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Speaker 2: Water Look, I'm optimistic that the information that was released

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Speaker 2: yesterday which provides councils with information about the range of

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Speaker 2: service delivery models that are available to them and the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to be able to access funding from the Local

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Speaker 2: Government Funding Agency, but that provides them with the information

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Speaker 2: they need to move forward and to establish professionally lead

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Speaker 2: water entities that can achieve economies of scale with the

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Speaker 2: financing that's required, that can ultimately fix our infrastructure and

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Speaker 2: ensure we've got the right capability and a capacity across

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Speaker 2: the sector.

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Speaker 1: The five time calculation. Does anybody know whether that's applicable

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Speaker 1: to each council in the sense that whatever they need

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Speaker 1: to do can be done within that budget.

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Speaker 2: I think the critical piece is that you only get

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Speaker 2: the five times if you meet certain prudential metrics. Now

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Speaker 2: I don't know what those prudential metrics are going to be,

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Speaker 2: but I suspect they're going to be the standard things

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Speaker 2: that banks or other funding agencies require. So it's both

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Speaker 2: a yes and a no. It kind of depends because

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Speaker 2: some of those councils will need to combine I suspect

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Speaker 2: their water assets to be able to achieve those sorts

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Speaker 2: of metrics.

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Speaker 1: Which is the next problem, do you honestly see and

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Speaker 1: some of them are mentioning it already, councils coalescing that

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Speaker 1: aren't geographically connected. Is that possible and realistic?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a real question about can you

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Speaker 2: share some services. If you think that all entities will

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Speaker 2: require asset management programs, they will need to think about

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Speaker 2: the data, They'll need to think about the consumer contracts

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Speaker 2: they'll need. There's a whole bunch of things that you require,

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Speaker 2: and you can opt to share systems or to make

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Speaker 2: sure that you're on similar systems such that you can

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Speaker 2: get some of those economies of scale. Maybe when someone's

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Speaker 2: thinking about putting in meters, you know, the next door

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Speaker 2: council is saying I want to do meters as well.

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Speaker 2: You know, when they get they get a larger order.

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Speaker 2: So I think there are ways in which you can

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Speaker 2: both share services and get some of those economies of

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Speaker 2: scale across procurement.

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Speaker 1: Is there a seed here? Do you think of an

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Speaker 1: actual fix? In other words, we're here at last.

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Speaker 2: Look I'm optimistic. I mean the critical piece here is

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Speaker 2: we need to get funding into the sector because without

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Speaker 2: extra dollars, you can't fix the links, you can't fix

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Speaker 2: the overflows, you can't make sure your water and wastewater

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Speaker 2: treatment plants are compliant, that your stormwater arrangements are appropriate.

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Speaker 2: So the dollars is required. Having the time frame that

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Speaker 2: you know, you raise the debt and you mare that

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Speaker 2: debt over a longer with the repayment of it over

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Speaker 2: a longer time frame will help it with that affordability,

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Speaker 2: and that's what ultimately you and I need to be

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Speaker 2: able to ensure that communities across the country are getting

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Speaker 2: better water outcomes at rates that we can afford.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's see how it works. Jillian appreciated, have

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Speaker 1: a good week in Jillian Blyth, who's the water in

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Speaker 1: New Zealand CEO and I know with a great deal

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Speaker 1: of excitement, probably excitements of the wrong word, but Tony

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Speaker 1: Haskell has gone or is going today. It's a final

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Speaker 1: daylet type. They don't have two farewell parties anyway. She's

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Speaker 1: the chief executive a well into Water, which has been

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Speaker 1: an unmitigated disaster. She's been in the role for about

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Speaker 1: three and a half minutes, which hasn't gone well for her.

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Speaker 1: Took to four months, remember took four months to tell

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Speaker 1: the region's councils about the budget era of just the

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Speaker 1: fifty one million dollars. So she moves on and the

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Speaker 1: pipes still leak. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio