Adams Amy: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Adams Amy: Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:10091] 
AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) 
: 
 We come to the third reading of the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Bill and it is my final opportunity to contribute to this debate. I am very happy to stand in support of this bill because unlike members opposite I reflect the concern that has come through my office every day since I have become an MP about the way in which Environment Canterbury is operating. Despite the rhetoric and despite the scaremongering this concern is coming not just from one side of the debate; it is coming from people who deal with Environment Canterbury in many ways and who express constant frustration about delay and excessive cost and about being absolutely powerless in dealing with an organisation that has got into a mind-set of thinking that it does not have to listen to its people. 
In the first reading debate I started talking about the importance of Canterbury as a region. I am quite happy to stand here as one of the Canterbury MPs and say that Canterbury is one of the most important regions in this country. It has a spectacular environment and it is one of the most important regions economically. Water is crucial in Canterbury. There is no bigger issue I think we can safely say—certainly facing the people of Selwyn—than the proper management of our water. Every single person I have come across in this debate—and I ask members opposite who disagree to let me know—would agree that water has not been managed well in Canterbury. If anyone has a different view I ask that person to let me know. I have not heard anyone who is prepared to stand in this House to say that water has been well run in Canterbury—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Jones thinks that it has been. He thinks that everything is fine in Canterbury. 
Frankly anyone in this House who is not prepared to back this bill is saying that everything is fine with Environment Canterbury that we should not do anything—let it keep going as it is let us just bumble along with our heads in the sand for another 10 years it will all be OK mate and it will all come out in the wash. It will not. I can tell members that I have lost faith in Environment Canterbury’s ability to fix this crucial crucial issue. I have lost any confidence that it can turn this round. I am not saying that members of Environment Canterbury are not good people—they absolutely are. I am not saying that they have not done some good work—they have. But I am saying that I do not believe that Environment Canterbury can deal with the problem of water in Canterbury. The Government needs to step in. The Government in my view has an obligation to step in when the job is not being done properly. 
Regional councils operate under legislation from this House. We have the authority as a Parliament to step in if that job is not being carried out. It has not been done properly and there is a need for urgent action. Let us be quite clear about this: those problems have been around for a long long time. Trevor Mallard was quite honest in saying that his Government knew that there was a problem. He wanted to see action on Environment Canterbury but the Labour Government did not act because there was an election coming up. 
At the very first briefing Minister Smith received as the new incoming Minister for the Environment he was told about the pressing issues in Environment Canterbury and this Government is going to deal with them. It is not an easy decision to make it is a courageous decision to make but it has to be done. We recognise our obligations to get this right; water is simply too important for us to bumble along and pretend nothing is wrong. There is a problem it needs urgent action and we have to put in place commissioners to get this right so that we can return to normal operations in our regional councils. They will not do it on their own; they have shown that over a long period of time. This bill is necessary and I am very pleased to see it happening. I commend it to the House.