Sio William: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7128. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Earlier the Minister for the Environment instructed the Local Government and Environment Committee to report back on the bill in the House by 15 February 2016. This puts it in the 4 to 6 month category meaning that there will be a vote but there will not be a separate debate on this issue. Given that this period includes the Christmas and New Year holiday when the House does not sit it effectively leaves the select committee consideration little more than 2 months. What we are looking at is that either the usual 6-week period of receiving submissions would have to be shortened or there would be only 1 week of hearing submissions and only 2 weeks to consider the departmental report.So the Minister I would hope—if he really does believe in what he is saying—would want to amend his instruction to ensure that he gives ample time to the residents and citizens of the Canterbury region to come forward and to make submissions on this particular bill. When you take into consideration the Christmas and New Year holiday I cannot help but wonder whether this was deliberate because most citizens will be focused on the Christmas holidays and not on this bill yet this is such a significant piece of legislation that I suspect citizens of the Christchurch region will want to have a say. I would ask the Minister to make the amendment and allow the citizens of Christchurch ample time to make submissions. I would tell the Minister to move the report-back date further out.I say that because I want to challenge some of what the Minister has said. When I listened to the Minister I was listening intently because I genuinely wanted to hear the arguments but I have heard that same argument over and over again. In fact in the last 7 years since this Government came to be I believe that it has gone out to deliberately undermine the local government sector. It has treated local government with disdain. It has not treated the people elected by the people with respect. It treats them with disdain. It treats them as if they were an extension of his Government ministry.I say that because in 2010 we heard the Minister and that Government say that it was for only a short period that we were going to abolish and get rid of elected representatives—until 2013. In 2013 the Government tabled a similar piece of legislation saying: “No we are not going to elect people. We are now going to look to 2016.” Next year is 2016. Before 2016 the Government is tabling a similar piece of legislation and what did the Minister say? He said: “We’re going to wait until 2019 before the citizens of the Christchurch region get the opportunity to elect their own representatives.”Can we trust that word given the pattern of 2010 2013 and this year? Can we trust the Minister and in the same regard can we trust the word of that particular Government when it comes to what it is saying today in this House? I would say no—I would say no. We do not know what is going to happen in 2019 but we certainly know that the promises made in 2010 were not kept in 2013 and that the promises he made in 2013 will not be kept this year or next year when the elections take place. So I have serious doubt that the promise he makes today in this House will be kept come 2019.So what is this all about? This is about this Government wanting to control who decides what happens to water in that region. This is about a Government that does not trust the people of the Canterbury region. It does not trust that they can make their own decisions as to what happens there.I know my colleague from the Green Party Eugenie Sage was a member of that council whose seat on that council was rudely abolished by this very Government.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Because they were incompetent.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: She will probably give a more intimate detailed description of what happened—not from the word of that particular Minister. He can say all he wants but can we trust him? I say no. Based on the pattern that he has established in this House you cannot trust this man here. You cannot trust this Government when it comes to local democracy.Democracy is about trusting the people to make their own decisions. Rightly or wrongly the people will make the decision.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Why did you sack the district health board in Hawke’s Bay?Su’a WILLIAM SIO: Listen. I sat here listening to you; you will sit there and listen to me. Here is a man who now does not trust what he said himself and he is trying to defend the indefensible. If those members felt so strongly about maintaining proper decision-making here in Christchurch why did they not do that up north in the Kaipara District where there are some serious problems? They did not because this is about protecting their own self-interests in the irrigation of water in the Christchurch region.People in Christchurch will want to have a say on this and I hope they are listening. I hope they are listening when I say that you cannot trust a Government that makes promises time and time again and each time it makes that promise it then passes legislation to break that same promise that it makes. But democracy is important and democracy is the foundation of local government. Local communities want to have a say on how their councils determine the direction and the future of where those local communities go. So I would say that if I was a Cantabrian I would feel that it is disgraceful the way this Government has used its powers to usurp the rights of communities to elect their representatives which those communities have every right to do. They would be their local representatives who would represent them and make the decisions that are best for that community and the future of the Canterbury region.I understand that before this Government passed legislation in 2010 it had actually hatched up the agreement at a National Party conference. Why? Because as I understand it and as it was reported to me by those in the know this is about protecting personal interests—personal interests. So this is not about elected representatives on the Canterbury Council making bad decisions. This is about those members protecting their mates—protecting their interests over the interests of the wider community.Tim Macindoe: Oh here we go again.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: Well I can say this. Those members have not been straight with New Zealanders. They have not been straight from the beginning about Canterbury and the rights of Canterbury people to elect their own representatives.So the mixed model—what is the mixed model? I like what my colleague Dr Megan Woods here said. She said that a woman is either pregnant or not pregnant. That is what Dr Megan Woods said. A person is not half-pregnant—a person is not half-pregnant—so what is this mixed model about? It is about maintaining the façade that we are transitioning into democracy when the reality is that it is not going to happen. It is not going to happen. The Government has retained its right to be able to appoint six councillors on the regional council. As long as the Government has that ability to be able to appoint people on that regional council it will also have the ability to control and to determine and to influence the decisions of that council in the years to come.But the reality I have also been told is that even though the Government says today that this is a transitional provision and that in 2019 the region will be able to elect its own full council it is my understanding that the Government has been advised by the Ministry for Primary Industries to retain the structure—to retain this mixed model of democracy of convenience for the Government. So I do not believe that we can trust any word that this Minister and his Government have laid out before the House.Look to the pattern. In 2010 the same promise was made and broken again. In 2013 the same promise was made and broken again. This year we are hearing the same promise again—the promise that in 2019 the people of Canterbury will elect their representatives. I do not believe that that is ever going to happen based on the pattern that the Government has established for itself.