Hayes Joanne: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 10 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9642. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): I stand as the last speaker on this side of the House to support the Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill. I want to point out that word “Transitional”—transitional because that is what happens when you want to retain a stable governance process. It has always happened year after year—transitional ways of being able to keep the old heads in with the new heads. It is simple. It is very very simple. It is not about taking away the democracy of Cantabrians. It is about—Poto Williams: Give it back then. Let’s give it back.JOANNE HAYES: No it is not because I can say that the Cantabrians will get a chance to elect seven councillors to Environment Canterbury. They will get that opportunity. So that is not taking away the democracy of a region. Retaining six of the members appointed by the Government is about retaining that stability in there. It is what transitional arrangements are all about—it always has been. When I hear members say “Watch out because this could come to your area. The Government could step in and do the same thing to your area with your regional council.” that is a load of rubbish. This Government stepped in because it was asked to step in.This Government was asked to step in because the previous regional councillors were not doing their job. They were seen to be severely severely incapable of doing their job. That was actually spoken about here tonight—not by this side but by New Zealand First—by the member Mr O’Rourke. He actually said it. He said it was a good thing—it was the best thing to do—because they were not firing. They were not doing the job that they were supposed to do. If they had done the water development plan as they were tasked to do and done all the work that they were tasked to do and the management of Environment Canterbury as well then the Government would not have come in at the request of all of those mayors.It is shameful that the other side is ridiculing this process and maligning the chair of our select committee. I must say that he is one of the best select committee chairs in this House. I can tell you that right now. They are also maligning the commissioners who have done a good job. They took a broken regional council and they fixed it up—it is not an easy thing to just go in and fix it up—and started to move along the path that the previous regional councils were tasked to do that they did not do.So as I stand here today and I look across the House during the second reading I have no qualms in supporting the second reading of this bill to the House. I look forward to the third reading and it passing into legislation because the new council—when it comes into force with its six appointed members—will have 3 years in which to train up and to support the new councillors so that Cantabrians can then get back to electing their full Environment Canterbury constituency of councillors. Thank you.