Canterbury people lost their democratically elected Council to the National Government's ideological hunger for dictatorial power, when Nick Smith dismissed the Council and installed people of his own choosing. Canterbury people were justifiably incensed that a Government would over-rule the will of the people, but soothed their anger with the thought that they'd be able to elect a new Council when the rest of New Zealand held their local body elections. But no. That won't happen. National is to keep it's boot on the throat of the people of Canterbury and refuse to let them choose for themselves, according to Nick Smith, speaking at the Land and Water forum recently;
Canterbury doesn’t need another dysfunctional elected council making decisions on water, former Environment Minister Nick Smith says:
As a cabinet minister, he sacked elected Environment Canterbury councillors and replaced them with commissioners.
When their term expires next year, he hopes they will be replaced by a mixed council of elected and Government-appointed representatives.
In Ashburton on Thursday at a Federated Farmers water forum, he said there were some big water decisions ahead of Canterbury, including bulk storage and tapping into alpine rivers protected by Water Conservation Orders.
He said a fully-elected regional council making those decisions would result in the same “dog’s breakfast” left by the previous council, with views polarised into urban and rural camps."
Welcome to National's 'One ring to rule them all' style of politics, everyone.
There are unpleasant names for this sort of governance.
Monday, June 11, 2012
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