Clark David: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clark David: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8218. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 I am delighted to take a call on this Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill which raises some serious concerns for this side of the Chamber about the Government’s commitment to democracy. I am disappointed not to hear too many contributions from the Government side of the Chamber defending it and I look forward to hearing from the Minister in the chair the Minister of Immigration shortly who I am sure has a valuable contribution to make on this matter—it is certainly the case that good heads in the south need to be giving this consideration and feeding back just why it is that this decision cannot be taken sooner why full democracy cannot be restored to the people of Canterbury sooner and why Nick Smith’s promises to make sure that the council elections in Canterbury will take place in late 2013 are not going to be honoured. 
It is a disgrace. It is another broken promise by this Government. It is a Government that talked about in its early days having higher standards. It talked about a brighter future. How that language has disappeared from the vocabulary. How it has disappeared from the vocabulary. 
Tim Macindoe 
: And we have delivered. We have delivered. 
Dr DAVID CLARK 
: We are hearing from the other side that it has been delivered so I would ask the people of New Zealand to judge whether they think that this has been delivered whether they think a brighter future has been delivered. 
Real per capita wages have dropped under this Government and that means if we take out the technical terms that people are hurting because the cost of living has gone up and wages have not kept pace. Inequalities are greater than they have ever been and I do not think that represents a brighter future by any stretch of a long bow. 
It is also a Government that promised not to raise GST and then promptly did. It fits into the pattern of broken promises it is fair to say. We see that the wage gap with Australia that was promised would be closed has this week been announced to have gone up 50 percent—50 percent—since this Government took office in 2008. We are seeing a thousand Kiwis a week leave for Oz. This is I guess typical of a Government that is becoming in the habit of breaking promises. It does have the worst economic record of any Government in New Zealand in the last 50 years as I have been reminded from the other side of the Chamber. 
Nick Smith was very clear even in his Cabinet papers: he proposed that this election be deferred until such time as commissioners have satisfactorily addressed the immediate issues facing Environment Canterbury but no later—no later—than the local body elections scheduled for late 2013. That is not what we are seeing here and it is a great disappointment because we on this side of the Chamber value democracy. We think it is the appropriate way to make sure that we have the leaders in charge of making sure that populations’ interests are taken account of. So we think it is a disgrace that this is not happening. 
The Chief Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford submitted that the view of the Human Rights Commission continues to be that the undemocratic way in which the original legislation was introduced and its continuance is simply wrong from a human rights perspective. So we have condemnation from those who have examined the issue. We have a gut feeling we have an uprising in Christchurch and thereabouts saying that this is just wrong and we have many many many other examples that we could draw to mind. Councillor Glenn Livingstone has said there are strong feelings in the city over the issue and that that has been galvanised by the debacle over the restructuring of Christchurch’s schools. 
There is a groundswell of feeling here. There is a view that is shared by the people of Canterbury and shared by all of those people who are concerned for democracy. We need this Government to stump up we need it to announce that there will be proper elections and we need it to honour its promises. We have seen it break too many promises and the people of New Zealand are disappointed—particularly those who did support this Government once upon a time are disappointed that it is failing to deliver. They feel that they have been let down by this Government—and rightly so. We see that people are urging us—I was out there on the street collecting asset sales signatures not so long ago—to petition for an early election because people believe in democracy and they are getting sick and tired of this Government. So I just want to say that is something that needs urgent attention we need basic democratic rights restored and we need the new Minister—