Today, Three Waters was rammed through Parliament to become law.

Ignoring the lack of clarity, the outright mistakes, the many deceptions, the failures to follow due process and the concerns of nearly 100,000 New Zealanders - the controversial Water Services Entities Bill (AKA Three Waters) has been forced through by Labour.

No other party – not even the Greens or the Maori Party – voted for it.

As the media and most politicians dance around the central issue, Hobson’s Pledge will continue to clearly declare that the control of everyone’s water has been handed over to an unelected and unaccountable co-governed minority.

A minority who claims its dishonest mandate by virtue of their ancestry alone, while also being unaccountable to their own people. A doubled-edge sword piercing the very heart of our democracy.

Labour's blatant lies around 'ownership' are now irrelevant – let me be as clear as the water Mahuta is stealing, New Zealanders now have no control of their own water assets.

The justification given for this legislation was the claimed need for urgent investment in infrastructure and fear-mongering about water quality.

It has long since been clear that, in fact, this was and will remain a clear, naked and blatant power grab to transfer control of public resources to a select group of Maori, as foreshadowed by the infamous He Puapua Report.

This is clearly the ambition of He Puapua come to life, enshrined into New Zealand law. 

What has been delivered is a complex bureaucracy that will operate, for at least half of the water entity boards, without any direct accountability to the people of New Zealand. And that half will have an effective veto, as the only ways to make decisions are either by consensus or by 75% majority.

Make no mistake, this is a dark day for New Zealand –

Our voices have been ignored

Unworkable and divisive legislation has been passed into law

No accountability has been delivered for countless mistakes and deceptions

Our democracy has been dismantled

Your support for the work Hobson’s Pledge is doing has become more important than ever.

As a nation, we are being reduced to “us” and “them”. We cannot allow this to continue or let this Government’s powerful Labour Maori Caucus operate unchecked like schoolyard bullies.

There is a better way. A way of living together where every New Zealander is equal under the law and the decisions about our collective property are taken by leaders accountable to the people at the ballot box and through public scrutiny by our institutions.

A way that is, in short, the promise of liberal democracy that is the heritage of all New Zealanders. A heritage that has been handed down to us by every generation before us.

Our Government is continuing to avoid accountability for failing to deliver a single positive outcome while it pushes through a storm of divisive legislation that it pretends will fix the failings of its spiralling and even more divided bureaucracy.

We know the Government does not speak for all New Zealanders, just as the Labour Maori Caucus and the Maori Party do not speak for all Maori.

Our mission now becomes to ensure severe democratic consequences for Jacinda Ardern, Nanaia Mahuta and Labour for this flagrant betrayal of our democracy.

Hobson’s Pledge will redouble our relentless efforts to make every New Zealander understand what is being done to their democracy and what that means for them and the country’s future. 

We have already moved co-governance from the issue that politicians would rather leave unmentioned to a major topic of debate (even in the mainstream media!). 

The next step is to make this theft of our democracy a key decisive issue for the next election – one that the major parties are forced to contend with at the ballot box.

We are currently planning our election year activity to push back against the division of New Zealanders euphemistically called "co-governance". This must be in front of every voter as politicians seek their votes.

It is more critical than ever that the average New Zealander understands just how dire the stakes are this coming election. Your support is essential in making this happen and bringing us back together.