Now, I'm not part of the tribe who automatically thinks that Auckland Transport is a bunch of ideological toss-pots who want to force us out of our cars.

I'm the sort of urbanist that gets there's a limit to the number of cars that can use our roads, and when that limit is hit then you have offer choices so we can all get somewhere.

I don't reflexively hate cycleways or bus lanes. I comprehend congestion charges and I'm excited for the Central Rail Link and even Light Rail. Mostly because I've seen the good a co-ordinated public transport system has done elsewhere in the world.

But AT's 24/7 parking charges change is beyond the pale.

Having developed the city centre with apartments, it will inconvenience residents who have been trying to take their cars off the roads by living in town. It's going to cost ratepayers. Either directly, such as the residents who reckon it will cost them $11,000 a year to park their car now. Or by funding a bureaucracy to run resident parking schemes.

It's said it will affect hospo workers. It won't stop punters who tend to cab or even use public transport into town because they're on the lash. The people it will really affect are the minimum waged workers who need to get in and out of the city outside public transport times - and who are least able to afford it.

But the most chilling part of the story is that the mayor and the Council are powerless to stop it, even though they've helped to cause the problem.

Councils fund council controlled organisations but they don't run them. In this case, the Council looked to reduce its funding so AT unilaterally increased its external fundraising by hiking the parking charges.

But that is AT’s constitutional right. The main Council body, including the elected representatives, have no operational control.

Rodney Hide designed them that way so politicians couldn't get the filthy, compromised hands on big assets.

Which is why I've always laughed about National's plan for council controlled operations to run all our water.

Councils may own and fund CCOs, but they certainly don't control them.

Just look at Auckland Transport.

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I was surprised that the news that Auckland had inked a deal with the Government over water wasn't the lead story on last night's TV news.

I would have thought that John Campbell would have had a deep dive on its repercussions for Auckland and the country.

Basically, water and housing are the biggest issues for this country because every single person, business and animal needs water - and we all need a roof over our head.

But maybe the kids we call journalists these days have never got water and its reforms.

There is a lot about the deal that has not been said.

Compared to 3 Waters, it's essentially 2 waters.

Watercare deals with drinking water and human waste. Waste is sewage.

That's a billion-dollar-a-year operation.

But they don't deal with stormwater and drains. That's called sewerage and that's dealt with in Auckland by an entity called Healthy Waters. Now that's a $200 million dollar a year operation. It's not a council controlled operation. It will still be funded by council borrowings.

So when people talk about polluted waterways being fixed, that's not really covered by the Watercare deal. Which is partly why Auckland's water rates increases are still at 7.3 percent.

That 7.3 percent is, as we all know, higher than the rate of inflation and a major part of the cost-of-living crisis which the Government promised to tackle. But that's another kettle of wastewater.

This deal happened because Auckland is the only council with CCO or council controlled organisations. They are the product of Auckland's amalgamation into a Super City by Rodney Hide. CCOs were actually designed to prevent Councillors fooling about in core business they know nothing about. And because of that they've never been overly popular. Yet it is claimed that this keeps water under local control.

Ask Auckland's Mayors and Councillors about how much control they really exert over CCO's like Watercare, or Auckland Transport, or Auckland Unlimited.

So, Watercare will have the remit, which is to provide water and remove waste. Operationally, they're in full control of their processes. The Council's control is limited to a majority of places on the board. So just a reminder that CEOs run companies not boards. They purely appoint a CEO and then assess how well the CEO has done.

The Auckland deal was low hanging fruit for the Government, because the structure was already in place. The real test is how this works for everywhere else in New Zealand.

The first real test will come this week when Horowhenua, Kapiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City meet on Friday to work together on a plan for a greater Wellington region water deal.

They will have to set up an entity with bureaucracy and thrash out a deal about which region receives what in funding. Just like 3 Waters.

Meanwhile, the good people in the countryside not adjacent to cities will be wondering if there's any white knights riding to their rescue regarding water borrowing. Or if they're going to be left behind.

To me this deal is 3 Waters lite, with no ‘co-governance’. And that's it.

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New Zealand seems to be waking up to an issue I thought would have caused more concern.

As part of the bonfire of the public service, the Government seems to be eyeing cuts to our public research and development sector.

Principally that means the Callaghan Institute, the Crown agency that employs about 300 people and has been the target of attack, particularly from David Seymour.

He sees the agency's work as being a form of corporate welfare, a bugbear of ACT's.

Other ministries and departments conduct significant research funded by the taxpayer. The Department of Conservation has developed major techniques and processes that have been adopted around the world.

The Primary Industries ministry also funds valuable research, including work into climate change mitigation.

It's feared that all this work will be affected as the Government saves costs in the backroom.

Last week, Stats NZ revealed that private industry is starting to put their money where their mouth is.

The New Zealand business sector has shown a robust increase in research and development (R&D) spending, reaching a new high of $3.7 billion in 2023.

That's $540 million increase, or 17 percent, from the previous year, marking the largest annual growth since annual data collection began in 2018.

There's value in research spending. So it would be short-sighted to reduce Governmental spending on it

R&D funding cuts could mean we will lose our best and brightest scientists, like those at Callaghan, to overseas countries who are investing in science.

As we enter a regime determined to cut spending I think it's good to remember a famous quote by Oscar Wilde.

He said - " a fool is a person who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing".

The worry is that the Government goes too far and starts to cut things of value.

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