16 November 2021
Three councils, including the Whangarei District Council, are taking the Minister of Local Government to Court over Three Waters. They are seeking the High Court to make a number of “declarations”.
The first set of declarations involves a Councils’ local governance role and ownership rights. It basically is asking the Court to confirm Council’s own the assets, but then ask it to declare “(f) the exclusive entitlement to receive full, fair and objectively and independently assessed compensation for any infrastructure assets removed by legislation from the ownership…of such assets.” In other words, if you take our assets you must pay fair value for them.
The second set of declarations involve the government “public education campaign”. Essentially it is asking the Court to confirm the campaign was misleading and therefore unlawful.
Here is the full Statement of Claim: Statement of Claim (councils)