Jessica Short
Jessica @DEMOCRACYACTION
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< April 2022 newsletter


Three Waters - Government removes vital information from public view

The Water Users’ Group legal challenge to the Government’s Three Waters Reform proposal has met an unexpected snag:

“Something strange happened in December after we filed our High Court application for judicial review. Crown Law asked us to redact information that was previously in the public arena,” Stephen Franks writes in a recent communication to supporters of the Water Users’ Group.

Crown Law are demanding that the legal team acting for the Water Users’ Group, Franks Ogilvie, take references to key evidence like Crown legal advice out of their application.

Crown Law advice was contained in Cabinet papers that were released online last year.
The Cabinet papers have since been taken down from the Government website and reloaded with the legal advice paragraphs redacted – see Cabinet Minute - Protecting and Promoting Iwi/Māori Interests in the New Waters Service Delivery Model: Paper Three

However, believing the Court hearing the case should know exactly what Crown Law are advising about the Three Waters Reform programme, Franks Ogilvie asked Crown Law for their opinion. As this has not been forthcoming, they recently filed an application to ask the Court to direct Crown Law to give them all their advice.  

To read the full story, explained by Stephen Franks of Franks Ogilvie, see HERE.


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