About an hour ago, the last speech was given and Environment Canterbury was consigned to the dustbin. In 30 hours flat, Cantabrians lost their right to vote for a council making major decisions about their lives. This is the first such axing of a council in our history – the Rodney district council asked for a review ten years ago.
Make no mistake, for all the posturing and Nick Smith’s third speech crocodile condolences to staff and councillors, we will not see ECAN return, certainly not under this government. And Jo Goodhew, MP for Rangitata and Junior Govt Whip, did not deny repeated claims in the House that it was her approach to Timaru mayor Janie Annear that triggered the Mayoral Forum criticism of ECAN. That came right on the eve of the vote which bowled former Labour MP Sir Kerry Burke as ECAN chair in favour of Alec Neill. Not that it did him much good – six months as chair and his Government’s rejection of his compromise that councillors work alongside commissioners. We put up amendments to this effect- and many others – but to no avail.
With ECAN gone, the Government can get on with the business of rapidly allocating new water. Sad thing is, that will put at real risk the Canterbury Water Management Strategy which gave us a once-in-a-lifetime chance of getting a win/win. Trouble is, although the strategy is attached as a schedule to the axe-ECAN bill, its first priority of environmental balance and first phase water quality restoration before new allocation, is not the Government’s agenda.
It is a shameful day for democracy – a great success for the pork barrel.
All i can say is that Nick Smith should not poke a stick in a hornets nest unless he wants to get stung. Cantabrians can be very one eyed and do not like prats from elswhere messing with them. Nick smith should realise nelson isnt that far from Canterbury, he may have to do a bill english and move over the water.
Great!
That’s two democratic entities destroyed. When are people going to start joining together to fight this?
New Zealanders are still too divided and NAct just march through the middle and take over.
Their plans are always well advertised. People just need to look for the signs.
Bloody hell and here I’ve been thinking the Auckland reforms have been way too quick and they should have been looking at 2013 as the phase in… Seems the government has learnt its lesson, no public say what-so-ever..! How is ChCh reacting to this..?
Message from National Party Head Office-
Canterbury is now officially a One Party State.
Don’t worry, Cantabrians – we know what’s best for you. You may have voted against us in the ECan October elections, so we made sure you couldn’t.
Come to think of it, we might rule out those pesky NZ elections in November 2011, too. Dammit, we are really on a roll, what with this mining and dairying and all. Can’t have it interrupted by the ChCh plebs and their petty moaning.
So fall into line, the rest of you!
No longer ECan, but the dairy effluent will make it the S*TCan.
That’s a very revisionist view of histry
.
You’ve conveniently brushed aside the dissolution of the Rodney District Council in April 2000, and its replacement by commissioner Grant Kirby by Hon. Sandra Lee, Minister for Local Government
The Hon. member was in a Labour coalition government at the time; and the Labour caucus endorsed the dissolution and Kirby’s appointment. Whilst one faction within Rodney endorsed the action there was also a second faction who refused to step down despite their failings – that’s when Labour stepped in and dissolved the council.
Your post also omits to mention that ECAN has had major problems since the mid-1990s, and it has failed time and time again to produce required water plans.
You’ve chosen to politicise this, but the real issue revolves around a disfunctional Council that has repeatedly failed to carry out its statutory requirements.
As for the meme on “destroying democracy” I have to question whether a democratic process that props up disfunctionality is better than taking a more autocratic approach and actually delivering on statutory requirements. There’s ideological purity about a democratic process but in the case of ECAN that ideological purity was completely overtaken by a completely disfunctional reality.
What is the point of regional govt? We have Horizons here in Palmerston North and I don’t have a clue what they do. Wouldn’t be better to just scrap all the regional govts and give that power to the district councils?
Brendon, what did your Helen Clark Labour government do about the Canterbury ECAN situation in its 9 years in office ?
You and yours have no leg to stand on, just as you have no credibility in finance as your government presided over the monstrous rort of the finance companies ($9billion gone – most the savings of working NZers).
I watched your government do nothing, you and yours have NO credibility over the ECAN affair, none at all.
Instead of your complaining from the sideline, I ask you to get alongside the new commissioners and work for a better ECAN, your sniping hinders not helps.
Put aside your blinkers and work for the people of Canterbury, not just for your moribund party.
Come on Labour Wake Up !
Joe Bloggs the replacement of Rodney was at the request of the Council concerned. Their was not really any issues with their procedures or processes.The Rodney councillors were the problem not the organisation
As well you are being absurd about ‘politicising this ‘.
For goodness sake emergency legislation was rushed through just before Easter.
If that isnt politicising I dont know what is
But do Labour have a plan to return democracy to Canterbury and Auckland?
Draco T B, how can labour have a ‘plan’ they arent the government yet. Its obvious that there will ‘more democracy’ than what Hide currently allows.
Red Rosa, it’s a bit rich calling canterbury a one party state. The urban dominance ( and lets face it, they weren’t an exceptionally bright lot) around the council table is at the root cause of all this. And to be blunt Brendons mate Kerry carries alot of responsibility for the mess Ecan has found itself in. Serious issues have been politicised ( conflict of interest etc) and this council has squandered opportunities to unite canterbury. I welcome commissioners and tend to think they will deliver more realtime democracy than this dysfunctional council ever has. For the record, party politics has never earnt its place at the regional council table. Dame Margaret is no party hack as far as I can see. All the very best to her , and heres to a collaborative approach to getting Canterbury water back on track. In other words , lets just get on with it and make some things happen, and I don’t just mean water storage and all that goes with it. Lets make sure development and environmental protection go hand in hand. i can assure the rural community knows this can happen, and yes , we are more at the coalface than our urban protagonists , I have no qualms in stating that.
Hopefully Kerry Burke will run for mayor. With local radio having been moved to Auckland and many people because of financial constraints no longer get The Press I doubt that many Cantabs are aware of what is going on.
Careful what you wish for Zoe. Sir Kerry at the helm is the last thing ChristChurch needs …….ever.
They can still draw up broad plans in what needs changing and when for when they get back in government. These will be up for change as time progresses but that’s fine.
Of course, getting anti-democratic authoritarians (NACT) out of power is usually more democratic.
Watched the house ‘debating’, great speeches from labour, good points raised and nothing – it was like there was a wall behind which the NAct & Maori party were sitting that stopped them being able to hear – they didn’t even have the courtesy of being in the house to vote in person to remove democracy from my region.
Can a legal challenge be raised to the bill? I resent cancellation of elections and the salaries going to be paid to the commissioners.
If I was asked , I would have the same plan as Simon de Montfort did in 1264, but with a twist, and send out ballots for the election of a new Regional Council , but with the words cancelled by Rodney Hide written over them
Happy Easter Brendon, Robert Winter, waterboy, Red Rosa, Joe Bloggs, Martin, Richgraham, and cantab.
Ecan is not the right structure to develop the water management plan – it has taken them far too long to develop it, to say nothing of the mismanagement of water that has occurred in their 21 years of operation.
The real big question is whether we need this second tier of local governance, created by Labour in 1989, at all.
Because the same questions are being asked up and down the country – not just in Canterbury. And it is clear that National wants to deal with it, because Ecan’s problems go back a long long way – they aren’t recent at all.
Interestingly, the deposed chairman of ECan, Alec Neill, is warning the mayors who triggered off this coup that their own days are numbered. In “Straight Furrow’ (of all places!) he suggests two unitary authorities for Canterbury will replace all the current TA’s.
But it is more likely that ‘One Council for Canterbury’ – of 550k people – will be the final answer. A ‘South Canterbury’ TA, even including Ashburton, is not big enough to carry its share of the overheads currently loaded onto ChCh City ratepayers.
‘One Council’is the best solution, and is in fact crucial if the Auckland SuperCity of 1.5m is not to totally dominate NZ local bodies.
Try the link to SF below – some tinkering may be required to see the front page.
http://straightfurrow.realviewtechnologies.com/?xml=Straight_Furrow
@joebloggs, the Rodney district council comparison doesn’t stack up; the council approached the Nat Govt to review it, Labour/Alliance govt inherited it, and with no agenda put in a commissioner for 10 months. Ecan out for 3 and a half years if not permanently, axed by a govt with a major agenda on water which even, thanks to Red Rosa’s latest post, we see former Nat MP (and Ecan chair)Alecn Neill, commenting on.
Rosa, great post.
@Cantab, pretty rich to describe the ECAN urban dominant counillors as not a very bright bunch – they include Alec Neill (and previously another National MP.) As for ECAN squandering opportunities to unite, well it drove the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, now rent asunder by the Nat/ACT govt decisions of last week. Huge questions now whether the urgent legislation will also blow apart the Land and Water Forum.
Given all of this,@RichGraham, – and I acknowledge my lot might have done more/better but that doesn’t sustain a case to axe an improving Ecan. It’s bit naive to think we can all put this behind us and support Commissioners. I fear we have lost a once on a lifetime opportunity to get the economic/environmenal balance right
Brendon, why did Labour resists calls to fix Ecan in 2004?
I listened to the various mayors of Canterbury yesterday in support of the new commissioner/s. I am stunned that there are over a dozen mayors in the mix with a voice and opinion, compared to Auckland, which is being made into a single unit. I guess Canterbury doesnt have as many assets?
I am assuming, please correct me if I am wrong,t hat outside Christchurch the mayors are largely representative of rural communities.
On the subject of cow poop in the water – after driving down to ashvegas yesterday – its pretty green in some of those paddocks – despite the distinct lack of rain cantabs have had – and I lost count of how many big water irrigation systems were spraying out water in the middle of a hot sunny day – only for most to evaporate in said heat.
Over lunch a keen angler made comment on how low the rivers were getting – but hey – now that the Nats control Enviro Cant – I am sure soon there will be no water – or a ‘flood’ of it as they dam it up. Just a hunch.
And as an aside – Kerry would have to be a whole lot better than ‘mr plastic man’ as mayor – bring back Gary I say.