Ardern Shane: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:619;Page:15285] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 If ever we needed an example of where the Christians had been consumed by the lions then clearly that contribution was it. 
Hon Member 
: A classic! 
SHANE ARDERN 
: It was absolutely a classic in that regard. I tell the Minister who has just left the chair Mr Benson-Pope that before the dinner break we were discussing the Fisheries Amendment Bill (No 3) and it was a mess a complete shambles and an embarrassment to any Government. Here we are after dinner discussing the Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill and it is a mess a complete mess and an absolute mess. The Prime Minister should take a look at who she has in her ministerial portfolios and do a reshuffle. She must do that. For the benefit of New Zealand that should happen right now—no later. She should put him out of his misery and bring this to an end. New Zealand cannot afford for that to continue. 
If ever there was a debate that caught the cliché “Know the price of water” then this debate must be that. One that follows in tandem to that is “Know the price of lack of good leadership or good democracy or good political process”. This demonstrates overwhelmingly what happens and those in New Zealand who are listening to this debate should take notice. This is what happens when we end up with hopeless Government either locally or centrally. I ask the Ministers who are in the House and the members of the Government what then “power of general competence” in the Local Government Act means when one looks at the way in which it is being applied in this debate at the moment. 
At the moment central government is saying in Part 1: “Look you down there in Canterbury are so thick that during the local government election process you will not be able to find amongst your rank and file people who will be able in their regional council to make decisions in terms of the allocation of water or any other resource for that matter in your area.” The Government is telling those people that they are so thick they cannot do it and that the Government does not trust them. The Government is saying: “We in central government—we the socialists the Labour Party minority Government propped up by the Christians—do not believe that you can do it so we will pass legislation tonight in the House with that minority support to make sure you get the message from Wellington.” I tell this Government that the people of Canterbury will be sending a message to this Government all right and it certainly will not be in support of this legislation. 
Let us look at the history. The Resource Management Act was passed in 1991. By the end of the 1990s it was decided that there was a need for some major reform. The Owen McShane report came about as a result of that and it recommended 12 substantial changes to the Resource Management Act. The report went to the select committee which was considering the report when there was an election and a change of Government and the incoming Minister Marian Hobbs put a red pen through the whole lot. All those recommendations were thrown out. They were completely rejected by the incoming Government. Tonight we are debating yet another silly amendment bill that will achieve absolutely nothing with regard to the Resource Management Act. None of those recommendations or the hundreds of other recommendations to the Government since then through the second select committee process has been taken up by way of amendments to the Resource Management Act. 
Let us look at the process that took place with Meridian Energy in terms of Project Aqua in this debate with regard to Part 1. A hundred million dollars of taxpayers’ money was invested in setting up a hydroelectricity plant in Canterbury where more energy needs to be produced. That process was stopped or thrown out and the primary cause of that according to the report that came back from that process was the overwhelming cost of having to go through the Resource Management Act process. So the Government introduced a fast-track—a Clyde-dam kind of piece of legislation—which went to a select committee. The select committee rejected a large chunk of it and made some sensible recommendations to the Government. When the bill went back to the Minister David Benson-Pope he threw the whole lot out and introduced a Supplementary Order Paper of about 9 pages to the House like he did with the fisheries amendment bill at the eleventh-and-a-half-hour when nobody had time to look at it properly.