Water needs a price, reforms require urgency, submitters say

By Pattrick Smellie
April 22 (BusinessDesk) - The government's freshwater management reforms need to be re-energised, lack ambitious timetables and avoid hard questions like pricing water, say submissions from a range of tourism and environmental groups on the proposed "next steps" for the reform programme.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, said in her submission that pricing water is overdue and that current debate on the subject confuses pricing with water ownership and payment for water infrastructure....
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