Wagner Nicky: Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1708. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 The National Party will not be supporting this Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill. The bill calls for an immediate special general election for councillors of Environment Canterbury to be held within 3 months of the bill becoming law. Although I was a councillor of Environment Canterbury and I understand the council’s and the councillors’ disappointment in being disbanded I am also impressed by the quality of the work that the new commissioners have done and what they have achieved during their term.  
As the Hon Ruth Dyson tells us the threshold for intervention in the affairs of local government by central government is high. It rarely happens and can be considered only if there is serious failure and/or extreme mismanagement. But there is a history of Government intervention into elected bodies. For example the then Minister of Health Helen Clark sacked the Auckland District Health Board in 1989 with the support actually of the National Party at the time. Also in 2008 the then Minister of Health David Cunliffe sacked the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Not with our support. 
NICKY WAGNER 
: Not with our support—OK. The Government intervened in the case of Environment Canterbury because the council had failed to effectively manage Canterbury’s fresh water. It is a truly important natural resource which we all want managed well. Although Environment Canterbury had had 19 years to get a water plan in place it had failed to do so. It did not have a fully operational regional planning and policy framework for resource management which meant that any decisions that had been made were very ad hoc very inconsistent and very unsatisfactory. There was an enormous gap between what was being done what needed to be done and what Environment Canterbury was delivering.  
The commissioners have since taken office and I must say they are a very impressive group. They are extremely well qualified and well experienced. They have worked together very effectively and have got some really good outcomes for the people of Canterbury. I just want to have a quick look at and pay tribute to those commissioners because they have done a good job. We have got firstly Dame Margaret Bazley who has led the organisation. Of course she has been ably supported by David Caygill who is respected by all sides of politics. The other councillors are David Bedford who is the chair of Enterprise North Canterbury and owns a small vineyard; Donald Couch who is the Lincoln University pro-chancellor and has a long history of and experience in resource management; Tom Lambie also a councillor from Lincoln University who has been involved in environmental policy for many years; Peter Skelton a former Environment Court judge who has been hugely helpful in developing water policy; and Rex Williams again a chancellor but this time from Canterbury University who has also been involved in water conservation. They are a wide varied and experienced group.  
The commissioners have focused closely on water management. That is the most challenging issue that Canterbury faces. They have worked hard to implement the collaborative Canterbury Water Management Strategy and they have made real progress. The 10 zones have been established and the zone committees are under way. Seven zones have completed their draft programmes and are consulting and several of the earlier programmes are beginning to be actioned. The commissioners at Environment Canterbury have also worked hard to develop collaborative processing in order to clean up Te Waihora which is Lake Ellesmere. They have worked with central government with iwi and with farmers and they have invested about $12 million towards their clean-up. This is part of National’s $265 million freshwater clean-up across the country which includes Lake Taupo the Waikato River and the Rotorua lakes. National is aware of how important cleaning up the lakes of Canterbury and managing our water well are and that it is particularly important that Environment Canterbury operates well. Under the commissioners it has made real progress and I believe they will hand it back to elected members in a far stronger position for the future.