PM asks the people what they think five months too late

“Prime Minister John Key should have asked the people of Christchurch what they thought before he fired the elected Councillors of ECan under parliamentary urgency, rather than asking them now, five months later,” Jim Anderton said today.

John Key has sent out a leaflet asking 120,000 Canterbury households whether they think the government should have fired the democratically elected councillors who ran the Environment Canterbury Regional Council (ECan).

The councillors were fired five months ago after John Key’s government rushed the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Water Management) Act through Parliament under urgency.

“What was the hurry? The Prime Minister could have consulted with the people of Canterbury and Christchurch then. Instead, local people were completely ignored. And John Key chose to replace elected members with unelected Commissioners, and postpone elections for three years,” Jim Anderton said.

The ECan Councillors were sacked because a decision on water management had stalled.

“Ironically they were close to reaching a consensus on water issues, and if the Government had shown some leadership rather than bullying elected members of Council out of their jobs, we could have been on the road to sorting out water in Canterbury.

“I’d like to know why the Prime Minister is using his parliamentary Leader’s Budget to write to the people of Christchurch five months too late. Or did he meet Bob Parker last week, and realise that maybe Mr Parker doesn’t know what the people of Canterbury really think, and the Prime Minister shouldn’t have listened to him in the first place?”

Mayor Bob Parker supported the firing of the ECan Councillors and supported the government’s rush to pass the required legislation through parliament before the people could be consulted.

“This is another example of Bob Parker doing things without bringing the people with him, in secret, and without bothering to ask residents what they think. The time for this kind of autocratic leadership in our region is up,” said Jim Anderton.

ENDS

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