This member's bill amends the Resource Management Act 1991 to classify the extraction of freshwater for the purpose of on-selling it in a packaged form as a prohibited activity.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
The Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill would change New Zealand's main environmental planning law, the Resource Management Act 1991, to stop freshwater being taken purely so it can be bottled or packaged and sold on. In practice it would prevent councils from granting or renewing resource consents (the permits needed to take water) where the water is destined to be extracted, put into containers, and on-sold commercially, whether domestically or for export. The intended effect is to shut down the commercial water-bottling business model that draws on aquifers, springs and other freshwater sources. It mainly affects water-bottling companies and would-be exporters, the regional councils that process water-take consents, and communities living near the aquifers and waterways that such operations tap.
This is a member's bill in the name of Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, drawn from the members' ballot, and it grew out of local campaigns against large bottling and export operations. The argument for it is that freshwater is a shared public good and a taonga: around 40 percent of New Zealanders rely on groundwater for drinking water, aquifers feed rivers, wetlands and ecosystems, and letting private firms take and sell that water hands away a common resource for private profit while risking depletion and contamination. Supporters also tie it to Treaty guarantees over water. The argument against is that a blanket prohibition would override existing consent rights, single out one industry for a ban rather than managing its effects, and could deter investment and cost regional jobs, when bottling volumes are small next to other water users such as farming.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.