Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: We've given councils eight weeks—until 1 October—to provide feedback on the water reform proposals. As I've already noted, prior work and feedback through this period has identified potential refinements to the current policy design. I'm willing to work in partnership with local government and iwi to ensure the reforms meet the needs of communities; that's very important. We've already considered and ruled out alternatives to reform such as regulation-only models and further central government funding of local government infrastructure for an inefficient network. There are inherent challenges that create a cost burden either way on ratepayers or taxpayers. Our reforms—the ones that I'm proposing—are designed to improve public health and environmental outcomes, improve efficiency of service delivery, support a financially sustainable system, improve infrastructure delivery and decision making while upholding the rights and interests of iwi through Te Mana o Te Wai.