Hipkins Chris: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee 
Hipkins Chris: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:10010] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I am happy to take a call on the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill. I intend to speak on clauses 9 to 22 starting with clause 9 and in particular the reference made to the Local Electoral Act and the Local Government Act. Clause 9(2) states: “This section applies no matter what the Local Electoral Act 2001 or the Local Government Act 2002 may say.” It was not so long ago that we had National members railing in this Chamber against any change to electoral laws without bipartisan support. But it appears that that applies only at the national level and at the local government level the Government can do whatever it likes. If it does not like the decisions being made by local authorities then it will just ride roughshod over the electoral laws that govern those local authorities and do whatever it likes. 
Clause 9(2) overrides the Local Electoral Act and it does not have bipartisan support. At least two parties in this Parliament have spoken very strongly against it yet nobody from National is willing to stand up and say why he or she thinks the democratic rights of people with regard to their local authorities should receive a lesser amount of importance and attention than their democratic rights to elect their nationwide Government. It creates two tiers of government in New Zealand one tier being clearly subordinate to the other. It says that once a nationwide Government is elected the nationwide Government can completely override the democratically elected local authorities. 
We have seen this twice in this House under this National Government already. We saw it with the Auckland super-city where under urgency the Government effectively sacked all of the Auckland local authorities and replaced them with the Auckland Transition Agency. All stages of the legislation were passed straight through under urgency with no chance for the public to have a say and no chance for the people whose roles were affected by that decision to have a say and that is exactly what we are seeing here. Through clause 9(2) in particular the Government is completely overriding local electoral law and installing a new regime that it will totally and utterly control. Democracy at a local government level in Canterbury with regard to what was previously Environment Canterbury is now dead. There is no democracy there. It will be ultimately controlled by the Ministers. 
Clause 13 states: “The responsible Ministers may at any time amend the terms of reference for the commissioners …”. At any time the Ministers decide that they want to do something a bit differently because they are not happy— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Gone by lunchtime. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: The terms of reference could be gone by lunchtime. The Ministers could decide that they are not happy with what the commissioners are doing and completely change their terms of reference. Of course if the Ministers are not happy with what the commissioners do with their changed terms of reference under clause 17(3) they are entitled to simply remove them. The Ministers can simply sack the commissioners and that is no problem whatsoever. If the Ministers are dissatisfied with what the commissioners are doing they have ultimate control over what goes on with what was formerly Environment Canterbury. This measure gives the Government ultimate control. There will be no consultation. Ministers can do whatever they like without any reference to the local authorities. The local people will have no say. They had an opportunity to elect a council and it is being removed by this Government with the local people having no chance to have a say. 
In fact if the local people were dissatisfied with what it has been doing there is a local election coming up this year and they could have replaced that council—that is the nature of democracy. But that democratic opportunity is being removed by this bill; local people will not get to have a chance to say whether they think Environment Canterbury is effective. They will not get any opportunity to vote members of the council in or out; that right is being removed for at least 3½ years. It will be at least 3½ years before people get a chance to pass judgment on what this Government is doing by removing their democratically elected local authority members. 
The other thing that this bill does in clause 18 is to give Ministers the ultimate responsibility for establishing what these commissioners will be paid. The Remuneration Authority which sets MPs’ salaries and the salaries of the local authorities will have no role in that. It will ultimately be up to the Ministers. So the Ministers appoint the commissioners they determine their terms of reference and they determine what they are to be paid. Ministers will have ultimate control over everything that the commissioners do in Environment Canterbury. Democracy is dead.