Tirikatene Rino: Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1709. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on this bill the Environment Canterbury (Democracy Restoration) Amendment Bill. At the outset I would like to congratulate my colleague the Hon Ruth Dyson on sponsoring this bill and I would also like to acknowledge the former member for Christchurch Central Brendon Burns as has been mentioned previously for his tireless work while he was the member of Parliament for Christchurch Central and in promoting and advocating the return to democracy in Canterbury.  
There has been over 2 years of unelected rule in the Canterbury region with Environment Canterbury—2 years of regional councillors who have been appointed because the previous members of the regional council were quite literally all sacked. They were cancelled out overthrown and sacked and that just is absolutely abhorrent to democracy. That is why Labour is supporting this bill. We want to make sure that we can restore democracy for Canterbury and fully constitute elected members to Environment Canterbury.  
I had the honour on the eve of the first anniversary of the 22 February quakes to travel through the red zone. When our small group got to Cathedral Square I saw this mound of stones piled up; it must have been around about 2½ metres tall. I asked what it was. Those stones were put in place by the thousands of Cantabrians who had protested the fact that their regional councillors were sacked and overthrown by this Government. That mound of stones withstood the earthquakes—many earthquakes—and they are still standing there as a memorial to the fact that the wishes of the Canterbury ratepayers were totally bulldozed by this Government and the fact that it installed its own commissioners and put in place an unelected group of people to run Environment Canterbury. Those stones which were drawn from all of the great awa—the great rivers—of the Canterbury region will still stand there and they will remain there until we get a democratically elected group of regional councillors rightly voted in by the people to actually continue the running of Environment Canterbury.  
Democracy was cancelled out by this Government. It has been for over 2 years— 
Dr David Clark 
: Democracy killers. 
RINO TIRIKATENE 
: —absolutely—and why? Well the simple reason is if we cut to the chase that this was all about power politics so the National Government could facilitate the deals to get its farming mates the rights to the water that they have craved. Sure the former elected Environment Canterbury had its issues but the fact is it was highly passionate about the fact of the water management in the Canterbury region. What did this Government do? It saw it as its opportunity to get rid of the elected regional councillors so that it could actually put in place a water management scheme that incidentally will be benefiting a lot of the supporters of this National Government.  
I would like to also mention the commissioners. I have got nothing against the commissioners who have been installed into Environment Canterbury. I have been to various hui and I do like to commend Environment Canterbury for the initiatives around Lake Te Waihora and the joint governance—co-governance—arrangement between Ngai Tahu the Te Waihora management board and Environment Canterbury in relation to the clean-up of Lake Te Waihora. That initiative is to be commended but those initiatives must be entered into with the iwi by elected representatives from the regional council. So I would just like to once again endorse this bill. We are supporting it and I would like to encourage members on the other side of this House to support it too. I would like to once again commend the Hon Ruth Dyson.