Twyford Phil: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee 
Twyford Phil: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:10006] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) 
: 
 I will speak to clauses 12 13 and 14 in Part 2 of the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill. They show some very disturbing tendencies in this Government’s approach to local government and they reflect many of the elements that we have debated and identified in Auckland over recent months—in fact over the last year or so. 
Clause 12 on the appointment of commissioners shows there is a distinct lack of transparency in the legislation with the terms of reference for the commissioners to be determined by the Minister of Local Government and the Minister for the Environment with no scrutiny by Parliament. Under clause 13 the terms of reference are able to be amended “at any time” by the Ministers. So the provisions give the Ministers who were referred to by councillor Jo Kane as “Jekyll and Hide” in the now-famous  
Timaru Herald 
 story complete carte blanche to determine the terms of reference for the commissioners. That is very very reminiscent of the kind of approach that Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce are taking in Auckland. They are appointing all of the first round of directors to all the council-controlled organisations so they will be controlling 75 percent of the assets of the new Auckland Council. It is a heavy-handed approach which has no regard whatsoever for democratic accountability or for the important role that Parliament plays in scrutinising these sorts of appointments. 
Clause 13 gives the Ministers the ability to amend the terms of reference “at any time” and the unrestricted power in clause 17(3) allows that “The responsible Ministers may in their complete discretion remove a commissioner by written notice at any time.” Well this is Government by fiat; this is where our democracy has got to. Nick Smith and Rodney Hide will basically run a puppet show in Canterbury to make damn sure that they get what they want and run their agenda through. The commissioners will be on a very short leash and the Ministers will be pulling the strings to make sure that they get the kinds of outcomes that they are looking for in water management in Canterbury. 
Clause 14 states that the commissioners must have collective knowledge and expertise and requires them to have knowledge and expertise in “organisational change”. There are no requirements for them to have any knowledge of science because as we know the regional council has been science-led rather than science-informed and it would be a very dangerous thing if the commissioners were led by science! I find that remarkable given this Minister’s many many statements in this House about the importance of good science. I have heard him say that on a number of issues in my short time in this Chamber. It is clear that the Ministers think that the council has not given sufficient weight to economic matters and when we read this bill we find that the kind of direction in which this Government under its hand-picked commissioners will push Environment Canterbury is also pretty clear. 
The other disturbing element is clause 14(1)(b) which requires the commissioners to have knowledge and expertise not in science but in “fresh water management”. I ask who will be dealing with the other very important responsibilities of the district council over the next 3½ years. As members will know public transport and regional transport planning are key responsibilities of the Canterbury Regional Council so who will be responsible for ensuring good governance of the regional transport strategy? Environment Canterbury has led some very impressive gains actually in public transport. Under Environment Canterbury’s management of public passenger transport there has been a steady growth in patronage a coordination of services the tendering of contracts and a record 17.5 million public passenger trips made across the region in the year to June 2009. That is impressive by anyone’s standards and under Environment Canterbury’s management Christchurch was the first city in Australasia to achieve integrated planning.