Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 18 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5318. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOJO MATHERS (Green) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Government’s bill to extend the suspension of democracy in Canterbury the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill. When the principal Act the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Act was first introduced in 2010 many of us in Christchurch were cynical that democracy would be restored in 2013. The joke in Christchurch was that Fiji would see democracy restored before we would in Canterbury. We were cynical despite Nick Smith’s heartfelt reassurances that we would in fact have our votes back in 2013. 
Why were we so cynical? It is because those of us who have been involved in water issues in Canterbury saw this Act’s real goal as being all about removing roadblocks to the extension of irrigation in Canterbury and the extension of large-scale water storage schemes. That is what this second-generation plan will help provide for and that is not in place yet. 
Democracy has been a barrier to these plans being developed. Why? It is because the people in Canterbury are apprehensive about more proposals for intensive farming for irrigation and for water storage. They are rightly so because we in Canterbury love our rivers and our waterways. We value our drinking water. Christchurch is the only large city left in the world that can drink pure uncontaminated water straight from the tap untreated. This water shapes our identity in Christchurch. 
We are concerned right now and have been for many years by the existing irrigation and intensive farming that are polluting our rivers. We are directly impacted by these. Just 3 weeks ago in the township of Darfield there was a really serious outbreak of gastroenteritis with more than 150 cases of serious vomiting and diarrhoea. This was directly related to intensive farming. The Canterbury District Health Board’s medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey has said in a statement: “Intensified farming now means that a lot of water is contaminated with animal faeces especially the Waimakariri after heavy rains.” The intensive farming that we have now in Canterbury is already not being well managed or regulated and it is already polluting our water and it is already making people very sick. 
It is impacts like this that make people want to have a say in how water is managed because they will have to live with the impacts of it. That is why it is so concerning that the bill does not allow appeals to the Environment Court on the merits of the commissioners’ decisions. This last bit is probably of greatest concern to me because we have no recourse to a vote and we have no recourse to the Environment Court. So what can we do if the commissioners make a decision that will allow more pollution of Canterbury’s water?