Cosgrove Clayton: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Environment Canterbury (Transitional Governance Arrangements) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10870. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour): As a Canterbury member of Parliament I think that this bill comes down to a couple of fundamentals as part of the rationale as to why the Labour Party and other parties are opposing it. I think one of the most pertinent points that I am mindful of is a quote from the now Minister Nick Smith in the The Timaru Herald prior to the 2010 election where he was wont to say that the reason that he sacked Environment Canterbury was that he was “worried about the outcome of the 2010 local body elections in Canterbury”.Grant Robertson: Worried.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: Worried. As my colleague Grant Robertson pointed out—I think I was in Cabinet at the time and a number of other colleagues and I were quite worried in 2008 about the outcome of that election. I do note that the Prime Minister did not go to the Governor-General and request that she cancel the 2008 general election. It happened. There was a result—they won; we lost. That is called democracy. But it is a telling admission by the Minister that he was “worried” about the outcome of the 2010 Environment Canterbury elections so he canned them. I suppose he then of course made a commitment that that would happen once that full democracy would be reinstated and then he went back on his word—to put it in the most charitable terms that we can. He went back on his word. It was a dishonest and disingenuous statement.Then we come to this bill of course. We are going to have a little bit of democracy but at the essence of this bill the one question that the Minister could not answer or would not answer—I put it to him many colleagues put it to him—is why he does not have faith in the credibility and integrity and skill of the people in Canterbury to step up to the plate and take charge of their own affairs. To be fair his colleague Gerry Brownlee through the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill was going to steamroll a pretty dictatorial piece of legislation through. However to give him credit he listened to the submissions that were made to him. He listened to the Labour Party and the Christchurch City Council’s submissions that pleaded with the Minister to allow local people of skill and integrity to have a greater say in their future and to give Gerry Brownlee credit he acquiesced and he put a pretty good piece of legislation through. In contrast this Minister does not have faith in the people of Canterbury to elect from amongst their number skilled and motivated and responsible folk to take charge and provide further leadership in their region as we move through the recovery and as we move to—what we have got here is sort of a halfway house of democracy.If he wanted continuity then what he could have done is have commissioners perhaps as advisers to sit alongside elected people to provide counsel or if he had great faith as he says he does in those appointed commissioners those appointed commissioners of course have the right to fill in the nomination form and have a crack themselves and stand for election. But the Minister has never been able to tell us why it is that he does not have faith in the good folk of Canterbury. No one in Government has been able to give a justification for that. He brought them down once said it would not happen again said he would reinstate democracy and said he sacked Environment Canterbury because he was worried about the 2010 election result—presumably about the water plan and what would be the outcome of that and who would be elected—and then he went back on his word again as we now have this piece of legislation.So Cantabrians will sit there today and look at this and scratch their heads because their Government—and I will be interested to see whether there are any more Government members maybe from Canterbury who would answer where the Minister would not answer as to why they do not have faith in the leadership of Cantabrians. They spout a lot of weasel words about Canterbury—a lot platitudes—but at the end of the day it comes down to whether you believe that Cantabrians will elect from amongst their number responsible people of integrity and skill as there are thousands in that province who want to step up want to show leadership and want to take Canterbury to the next step. That is the key question that I challenge the Government to answer.