Korako Nuk: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKorako Nuk: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7135. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]NUK KORAKO (National): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā huri noa i te Whare nei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and to you throughout the House I acknowledge you all.]Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā huri noa i te Whare nei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. It is my pleasure to stand and speak on the Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill’s first reading. Before I was elected to this House I was and still am a proud Ngāi Tahu Cantabrian and a former businessman and I was also a member of Ngāi Tahu’s governance board Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as Ngāi Tūahuriri’s representative. Ngāi Tūahuriri actually are mana whenua over most of Christchurch. In those roles it was absolutely clear to me that Environment Canterbury was failing and a change was needed. Environment Canterbury was failing to provide the leadership our region needed on irrigation issues. It was failing miserably in its duty to maintain water quality and particularly in its Treaty and statutory obligations to mana whenua.Environment Canterbury was dysfunctional and either could not or would not take up the hard decisions it needed to. Where our region needed decisions all we got were delays. When it came to consenting time frames this council was breaking the law over 70 percent of the time—that is right over 70 percent of the time. So we were all very pleased when the Government launched an investigation into Environment Canterbury’s performance. We were delighted that the Government took the resulting report seriously recognised the urgent need for intervention and took the hard decisions to replace the regional council with commissioners. The response to this was overwhelmingly positive in particular amongst Environment Canterbury staff.Ngāi Tahu were rightfully cautious about the removal of elected representatives but they recognised the need for intervention as a necessary practical solution. We should be cautious when intervening in a democratically elected body but the legislation we pass here puts certain responsibilities and obligations on councils. So when a dysfunctional regional council cannot or will not fulfil its responsibilities it is incumbent on the Government with the support of this House to act and that is exactly what happened. In 2010 the National-led Government acted and the results make it clear it got it right. Under the commissioners Environment Canterbury and Ngāi Tahu have built a much stronger relationship thanks to Environment Canterbury placing a higher priority on engagement with mana whenua. Just to quote from the iwi the Ngāi Tahu - Environment Canterbury success under the commissioners “sets the scene as a successful model of partnership”. Ngāi Tahu now has a relationship with its regional council that many iwi in this country would envy.Environment Canterbury has now become an exemplar as regional councils go but we still need a transition back to a fully elected body which is what this bill will do. It is about transition. It is equally important that we maintain the good progress that has been made and continue with the current stable governance that Environment Canterbury has throughout the transition.Finally I have heard from the other side of the House from the Opposition a lot of rhetoric and a lot of examples about democracy and all of this sort of thing. But if we go to the election of 2014—I think the most important thing there which is a reflection that we are doing this correctly and we are doing right is that in the 2014 general election National won the party vote in all Christchurch electorates. That is in Selwyn Port Hills Ilam Christchurch Central Christchurch East and Waimakariri. That there to me is a reflection of the fact that the people of Canterbury and the people of Christchurch actually support this and they indeed support this transition.I have no hesitation in commending this bill to the House and I look forward to it coming to the environment and—Jan Logie: Local government.NUK KORAKO: —the Local Government and Environment Committee. Kia ora.