Hide Rodney: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Hide Rodney: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9938] 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 I rise to support the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill. Local government plays a vital role in advancing the well-being of New Zealanders and New Zealand communities. Effective local government provides communities with a say about their resources and the decisions that affect their well-being now and in the future. A central tenet of our system of local government is the autonomy of local authorities from central government. Locally elected representatives who are accountable to their communities rather than the Government make decisions in the interests of local citizens and their ratepayers. As the Minister of Local Government I have an important role to play in promoting an effective efficient and democratic system of local government. This includes taking leadership on issues where central government’s engagement and action is needed to achieve local outcomes. Central government’s ability to intervene in the decisions and workings of individual councils should be and indeed is very limited. Such powers may be used only in specific and extraordinary circumstances where the risk to the well-being of local citizens justifies overriding local accountability. 
It has come to the attention of the Minister for the Environment and myself that such extraordinary circumstances now exist in Environment Canterbury. Let me explain these circumstances. In September 2009 all the mayors in the Canterbury region wrote to me outlining serious concerns about the performance of Environment Canterbury. That was unprecedented and denoted a serious breakdown in the region’s local governance relationships. That evidence along with that of Environment Canterbury’s poor performance in undertaking its responsibilities under the Resource Management Act provided compelling reasons for the Minister for the Environment and me to commission a formal review into Environment Canterbury’s performance. As the Minister for the Environment has outlined the report of that review’s findings identified major capacity issues with regard to Environment Canterbury including its inability to deliver a robust clear and effective framework for the management of Canterbury’s natural resources. Most striking was the review’s conclusion that there is an “enormous and unprecedented” gap between what needs to be done to effectively manage Canterbury’s fresh water and what Environment Canterbury has actually been doing. The recommendation of the review was that the existing council should be replaced by a temporary commission as soon as possible. 
The Minister for the Environment and I met with the Canterbury mayors and the chief executives of Ngai Tahu and other key stakeholders to listen to their views about the report’s findings. We also considered a number of written submissions from interested parties. We found that the region’s stakeholders were generally united in their opinion that central government intervention is temporarily necessary in order to improve the performance of Environment Canterbury. We also met not just the mayors but every council in the region and they were unanimous in their view. 
Drawing particularly on the report’s recommendations and the views of Canterbury stakeholders the Government has concluded that immediate action is needed to address the failure of Environment Canterbury’s elected council particularly in relation to freshwater management. The Government has considered a range of options for responding to this issue. We have decided that the replacement of Environment Canterbury’s councillors with commissioners is the best course of action to ensure that firstly Canterbury’s natural resources are managed in a comprehensive and holistic manner; secondly the framework for managing natural resources in Canterbury is integrated effective transparent and supports robust decision-making; and thirdly the institutional arrangements are in place to support effectively Environment Canterbury’s planning framework. This is a drastic move but it is necessary to replace Environment Canterbury’s democratically elected council so that the well-being of the Canterbury region is ensured. As Canterbury’s natural resources particularly of fresh water are nationally significant this decision is also in the interests of all New Zealanders. I can assure the House that this decision has not been taken lightly as I am naturally reluctant to intervene in the affairs of local government. 
As the governing body of Environment Canterbury the commissioners will exercise all the functions responsibilities duties and powers provided for under the Local Government Act the Resource Management Act and any other legislation. The commissioners will be accountable to the people of Canterbury and will be expected to engage with the community on significant issues. The existing public consultation and participation requirements will remain in place. Getting an effective relationship re-established with the region’s mayors and local authorities is essential to instil confidence in Environment Canterbury. The commissioners will therefore be tasked with improving Environment Canterbury’s working relationships with Canterbury’s territorial authorities as the bill requires the commissioners to seek advice from Canterbury mayors on local issues that affect Environment Canterbury. 
The commissioners will step in to provide the necessary and temporary governance and leadership needed to get Environment Canterbury working effectively. This is important so that it can deliver effective services for the people of Canterbury. The commissioners will be tasked with finalising and implementing an operative natural resources regional plan solving issues with freshwater management and making institutional adjustments to ensure Environment Canterbury can better manage its responsibilities. As outlined by the Minister for the Environment the bill provides the commissioners with additional powers to help them to address the region’s issues with speed and with expediency. 
The appointment of the commissioners is the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment and me. We are aware that the commissioner’s task will not be easy. That is why we will be considering only people of the highest calibre for this challenging and nationally significant role. Naturally one of the key criteria for the selection of commissioners is knowledge of and expertise in local authority governance and management. 
I wish to highlight the fact that this bill provides for the necessary but temporary replacement of Environment Canterbury’s elected council in order to get the organisation back on track. That is in the interests of everyone in this House of all the people of Canterbury and of all the people of New Zealand. The planned local government elections in October will be deferred until the commissioners have carried out their task which will be no later than the next local authority elections in October 2013. At that time new councillors will be elected to govern a far more effective organisation. That remains a priority for the Government and we are committed to Environment Canterbury operating in the usual democratic manner. 
I commend this bill to the House. I say to members opposite who want to attack this Government for political reasons that yes they should by all means hold us robustly to account but that they need to consider the mess that is Environment Canterbury and the difficulty that Environment Canterbury has confronted. They need to consider what it means to have 10 mayors and 10 councils saying they have a dysfunctional local government structure in Canterbury. Thank you.