Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7997. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOJO MATHERS (Green) 
: 
 I wish to speak to this bill the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill which steals democracy from the people of Canterbury. I was astounded like many others when the Government moved to remove democracy in Canterbury back in 2010. I was actually one of those who did not believe the heartfelt assurances of Nick Smith that democracy would be returned in 2013 because I knew there was just too much that the Government wanted to do while it had the commissioners in place. So I was deeply cynical and so were many others and I am very sad that my cynicism has been justified.  
The theft of democracy is nothing less than insulting to the people of Canterbury and it has been made worse by the pathetic excuses that have been offered and that I have had to hear tonight. There is a claim that we will lose the commissioners’ valuable wonderful expertise. This is nonsense. There are lots of options if we really want to retain their expertise to keep them on in an advisory capacity. My colleague in Christchurch Nicky Wagner feels that they have done a great job. If the Government really feels that the commissioners have done such a great job then why is it not moving to accept their primary preferred option for restoring democracy in Christchurch?  
The other even more insulting excuse we have heard tonight for continuing the removal of democracy in Canterbury has been the earthquakes. As someone who personally has been deeply and profoundly affected by the earthquakes—I lost my home in the first one and I came back to my flat and found it ransacked and a lot of my goods stolen within a day or two of the earthquake—I find the use of the earthquakes as an excuse to steal our democracy deeply and profoundly insulting. In fact it is an excuse to steal everything from our democracy—our schools our homes and our lands for some of us—and I find that deeply insulting. I know that there are many others who feel exactly the same way.  
I would rather have my democracy returned to me and returned to the people of Canterbury than have the goods that were stolen from me 2 days after the earthquake. That is how strongly I feel about it. We know that if we move past all these pathetic excuses this is not about improved water management in the sense of caring for the environment; it is about implementing the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and seeing that fully implemented so that we can see more water and land going to service the needs of irrigators.  
I have lived for many years in the country and I with my former husband ran a business that worked with farmers. So we actually do know something firsthand about what the impact of drought is on farmers in Canterbury and I do know that water is valuable and needed. But the Canterbury Water Management Strategy is not about drought-proofing; it is about maximising production on the land. This can have very serious impacts—downstream impacts—on water on our rivers and on the structure and fabric of our well-being. 
This is why many people are not embracing irrigation with open arms despite all the so-called economic benefits—because we are the ones who suffer the downstream impacts. We want to have our right to be able to express and engage with the issue of water through our democracy. It is profoundly insulting to be told: “We are going to steal your democracy in order to impose our agenda and we are going to continue to do that because of the earthquakes.” We are not stupid. We have the right to vote and it is very very pleasing that Labour and the Greens will work to restore our vote in Canterbury.