There will be a response to deliberate Three Waters misinformation, Mayor says

​An opinion piece suggesting Auckland Council had sold $10 billion in water assets has sparked action from councillors to correct the misinformation.

The opinion piece published in the Sunday Herald said the assets had been sold for $127 million.

At the Governing Body meeting on June 23, Mayor Phil Goff said the reform did not involve the transfer of ownership for assets. 

“I think it is deliberately untrue because the author could not be so stupid to think that,” Goff said.

“The article implied we were selling our soul. That could not be further from the truth.”

Goff said they must to respond to the Three Waters legislation that was being imposed on council.
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“In a democracy people have the right to be wrong… In election campaigns, the first casualty is the truth.”

Cr Linda Cooper said the article in the Herald was ill-informed.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there,” Cooper said.

“Nominally the assets stay in our ownership but we have no control over them.”
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Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore confirmed he had submitted an opinion piece to the Herald in response to the article.