Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mathers Mojo: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7824. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MOJO MATHERS (Green) 
: 
 The Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill which extends the suspension of democracy in Canterbury is a travesty of natural justice. The continued denial of voting rights is nothing less than a kick in the guts for the people of Canterbury and the people of Christchurch. 
The people of Canterbury are the people most affected by the decision and policy made by Environment Canterbury yet our input is marginalised and sidelined by this bill. We are the ones who fall sick when our drinking water supplies are contaminated and polluted. My 12-year-old son was one of those in Darfield who became sick when the water supply became contaminated with E. coli as a result of uncontrolled agriculture intensification in the area. It is our babies who are at risk when nitrate levels rise to dangerous levels as they have in some areas. It is our children who are affected when the local river becomes too polluted to swim in. These are fundamental issues that affect the health and well-being of everyone in Canterbury and therefore this is fundamental as to why we need to have a democratic say in the decision making. 
A healthy democracy is based upon three fundamental planks: that citizens are able to vote that there is a free flow of information so that decision making is transparent and that there must be the right of appeal. All of these have been denied to us in Canterbury. No matter how the Government tries to spin it as being for our benefit the reason why the Government is continuing to trample over our democratic rights in Canterbury is that it has the goal ultimately of turning Canterbury into one gigantic dairy farm. In other words it wants to relegate Canterbury to the status of a cash cow to serve its economic agenda and in doing so it is prepared to trample over the democratic rights of Cantabrians to have a say in the economic development of their area. 
This is about enabling massive construction projects that will change the face of Canterbury physically socially and economically and will have a real environmental impact—and it already is. This is about a massive super-dam land confiscation gigantic water-races cutting through historical properties and an energy-guzzling intensive irrigation scheme. It is about yet more intensive dairying in a region already struggling with the environmental and social impact of existing levels of dairying. Given all of these downsides it is no wonder that Cantabrians are nervous about embracing the Government vision of yet more dairying for the region. 
This is why it is so important that Cantabrians have the right to have a say. Real justice and truly sustainable economic development will happen only when people and the Government work in partnership. This is why the Green Party absolutely opposes this bill. Thank you. 
Debate interrupted.