National wants to "guarantee ownership of water for all New Zealanders" and would cut back on regulations around water storage, if elected to power.
National plans to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) to enable investment in water storage in the short term and make sure legislation that replaces the RMA facilitates easier long-term investment in water storage.
National believes water "belongs to everyone, but is owned by no one", and would work with local councils, iwi, and community groups to find solutions that enable more use of our water while "retaining flexibility" to encourage new infrastructure.
"National wants a strategy and model that allows us to unlock our economic potential and safeguard our communities from increasing drought," National Party leader Judith Collins said on Thursday.
"The recent Auckland water crisis highlighted the need for more to be done. Cities like Auckland need a resilient and clean water supply to continue being a world-class city, and to make sure we can deal with the economic crisis we are facing."
National would establish a fund within its proposed National Infrastructure Bank with $600 million to develop a long-term plan for water storage.
Auckland has been under mandatory water restrictions since May due to the region's ongoing drought, and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff confirmed last month they will remain until December.
He told The AM Show Aucklanders are saving 40 million litres of water a day thanks to the restrictions, but the lake levels just aren't going up, which are at 67 percent and normally at this time of year would be 90 percent.
"We could lift it now and then I'd come back on your programme if we have a really dry spring, which it looks like at the moment and a dry summer, and we'd have to slap the restrictions back on but even harder, and you'd say 'you bloody mug, why did you take them off in the first place?'" Goff said.
By December, Auckland will have another extra 40 million litres a day through extra supply from the Waikato, but getting that water was a contentious issue because of water rights.
Waikato iwi has looked to block Auckland Council's bid to more than double the city's daily water grab from the Waikato River over concerns about the increasing demands on the river.
Goff has spoken out in protest against Watercare's seven-year wait for approval to take more water from the Waikato and has blamed the RMA process for holding up plans to expand Auckland's take.
"After seven years surely we deserve better consideration because this is the worst drought we've had in our city's history... We can't afford that sort of disruption as we recover from the economic effects of COVID-19 rather than possibly waiting another decade to be heard."
But a report by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2019 said Māori water rights must be better recognised by the Government and that Māori should have rights to a percentage of water allocations.
It found fault with the RMA, saying planning regulations have "allowed serious degradation of water quality to occur" and that its Treaty of Waitangi section is "weak".
National's environment spokesperson Scott Simpson says less than 2 percent of the water that flows over New Zealand is captured, and about half of this is used in towns and cities and the other half for irrigation.
"Our country has water, we're just not using it," he said. "Having reliable access to water will allow us to develop more high-value crops and will expand our rural economy."
National maintains that farmers in New Zealand are the most carbon-efficient producers of red meat and milk in the world, and believes the Government's water regulations are too harsh.
It plans to review some of them if it wins power, such as the "unscientific and arbitrary" synthetic nitrogen fertiliser cap and the rules around winter grazing.
It was a heated topic of discussion in the Newshub Leaders Debate on Wednesday night.
"We said that we would be reviewing and looking at them," Collins said of the regulations, which she described as "rushed" through Parliament.
"You have to have a policy around regions because not every region is the same. The weather in Taranaki is entirely different from the Coromandel. The weather in Northland is entirely different from Southland, and so are farming practices."
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern shot back, "The world is changing. Unfortunately, Judith Collins does not want to change with it. Unless we move quickly, we lose an opportunity."
Collins accused Ardern of ageism, but Ardern said it was "not age Judith, it was ideology, and yours is outdated".
"We campaigned at the last election to stop the degradation to our waterways," Ardern said. "I refused to believe this is a blame game. Farmers want to swim in our rivers too."
Labour is committing $70 million to accelerate progress on a pumped hydro scheme at Lake Onslow which has been identified by experts as the renewable project most likely to address New Zealand's dry year needs.
