Ecanned
October 11th, 2010 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarThe Press reports:
New Ashburton Mayor Angus McKay and Hurunui District councillor Ross Little may be laughing, but the other sacked Environment Canterbury (ECan) councillors who sought new mandates have missed out.
In less than six months McKay has gone from dismissal at the hands of the Government to the top job in mid-Canterbury and ironically replaces one of the architects of the move against the ECan council, former mayor Bede O’Malley.
Further north, Little will now represent his local community in the Amberley ward on the district council.
There was no political resurrection, however, for other ECan councillors who lost their jobs when Environment Minister Nick Smith and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide stepped in earlier this year.
Sir Kerry Burke, Jane Demeter, Pat Harrow, Jo Kane, David Sutherland and Rik Tindall all stood for council, community board or district health board positions, with Tindall also having a shot at the Christchurch mayoralty.
It is interesting that Christchurch voters have rejected the people that helped made Ecan so incompetent (ranked 86/86).
Angus McKay was not one of those, and pleased to see him become Mayor Ashburton. Angus is a former National candidate standing against Jim Anderton in Wigram.
October 11th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
So what you’re saying is that these people were deeply unpopular and weren’t going to be re-elected.
So why didn’t Cantabrians get to vote on it?
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Because the situation was too far beneath the radar of most cantabrians that they were perversely re-elected despite their incompetence.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I had to chuckle at Burke’s spin in the article.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
It’s just a pity that Cantabrians didn’t, and won’t for some time, get a chance to say that themselves in regards to Ecan.
Vote:Apparently Granny NAct know’s best so there is no need for democracy.
October 11th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
metcalph.
That fact that the government had the ability to do what they did should be cause for concern for all. If NAct can do it now then what is to stop a future Labour government suspending local elections, just because they think it’s not delivering what ‘the people’ want? Would you support that as readily?
If National and their interests felt that Ecan was not delivering what was needed and was hoodwinking the population they should have organised to stand their own candidates against them at the election and campaigned for change. At least then they’d have true legitimacy.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
That fact that the government had the ability to do what they did should be cause for concern for all.
Not really. It’s been the basis of our constitutional order. The local bodies are creatures of parliament not independent democratic institutions in their own right. I find the continued wailings about democracy to be rather hilarious considering that most people had as much awareness of its going-ons as they did the local Health Boards. And unlike the Health Boards, Ecouldnot collected its own rates so could not be made to be competent by controlling the pursestrings. Strangely enough most people when confronted with this fact about the DHBs instead of complaining about lack of democracy think we should abolish the DHB elections.
then what is to stop a future Labour government suspending local elections, just because they think it’s not delivering what ‘the people’ want? Would you support that as readily?
Trevor Mallard is on record as stating that he was concerned about ECockup’s pisspoor performance as of 2007 but felt unable to do anything about it due to the impending election. This was not a partisan issue by the National Government.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I’m not saying it is or was a partisan issue. If Labour suspended a local board AND cancelled the next set of elections I’d be just as critical of them.
As I said I believe that for true legitimacy they should have addressed this through the democratic way that was already in place for those directly affected to make there voice heard. Saying that people just weren’t interested therefore we’ll take there choice away is not good enough.
[DPF: Labour three times sacked a democratically elected board. And none of them were in any was as incompetent and dysfunctional as Can that over 19 years had failed to even have a water allocation policy]
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
If Labour suspended a local board
Rodney. The Auckland Area Health Board. Your stipulation of cancelled the next set of elections is a desperate red herring because ECan’s problems are far too big and have been so for some time.
Saying that people just weren’t interested therefore we’ll take there choice away is not good enough.
And your alternative is what? Allow the council to continue to fuck up the province?
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
1. Suspend the board.
2. Publicise why you did it.
3. Stand your own people at the next election.
4, Let the public decide if your suspension was warranted.
If step 1 is done for the right reasons and step 2 is done properly then you’ll get your desired results.
“[DPF: Labour three times sacked a democratically elected board. And none of them were in any was as incompetent and dysfunctional as Can that over 19 years had failed to even have a water allocation policy]”
I have no problem with the suspension or the reasons, I actually agree that ecan was highly dysfunctional. It’s the subsequent process of election cancellation, and the precedent that sets that concerns me.
As I said before if Labour get back in and try this shit I’ll be just as against it.
[DPF: If they had been sacked two years before an election, then that is probably what would have happened. But it occurred too close to the 2010 elections. Personally I hope they can have elections before 2013, but let the Commissioners have some time to see if they can get community agreement on a water allocation policy]
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
3. Stand your own people at the next election.
And thereby making a nonpolitical issue about malperformance into a partisan political issue. Well fucking done.
4, Let the public decide if your suspension was warranted.
The time to judge the performance of the government’s actions is at the general election.
I have no problem with the suspension or the reasons, I actually agree that ecan was highly dysfunctional. It’s the subsequent process of election cancellation, and the precedent that sets that concerns me.
Really? It isn’t what you were saying before. At 4:22 pm you were only stating that they should have stood their own people at the next election. When local bodies go off the rails, the government has a duty to intervene and appoint commissioners if need be to fix the matter. Simply wailing about democracy does nothing to solve the matter because a democratically elected fucked council does nothing to ensure respect for local democracy.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
DPF – It is interesting that Christchurch voters have rejected the people that helped made Ecan so incompetent …
Shame its not just the chc voters who are electors for ECAN, the rest of us didn’t get a chance.
Shame the people were not given the chance to make their own judgement on how “dysfunctional” ECAN was.
Shame the government gave powers to the ECAN Junta that the elected ECAN needed, but did not have.
And what has the Junta done so far about the uissues that supposedly made ECAN disfunctional? Decided that Rangiora and Kaiapoi should have fucking maori names, that’s what!
Never EVER forget that the slimeball that sits in the Environment Minister’s office declared that there could be no election for ECAN as the people couldn’t be trusted to deliver the right result.
Vote:October 11th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
And what has the Junta done so far ……
OMFG, you are laughable!
Do you even know what a Junta is? One could not even exist in NZ! How would they enforce their power?
Vote:October 12th, 2010 at 9:09 am
This result is nothing short of a ringing endorsement of the govt.’s actions
Vote:October 12th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Ecans functions are too often complicated by the city and district councils aims and needs and the things that are in Ecans realm are too specific to be functionally controlled by the very large electorates interests. This rubbish approach has led to the wasting of vast sums of money on “turf fights” that resolve nothing
Vote:Rural water needs are very economically focused and some sort of central government control is probably the best system of management. What does an average resident of a city ward know about the management of acquifers, river flows, economic benefits of irrigation, and river flood controls. other than the emotive rhetoric that someone with a desire for power, prestige and money will not manipulate to get elected. Likewise rural weed and pest control, zoning and land use.
Too often the rural members or some of them would be excluded from discussion and or voting on the grounds of conflict of interest when they alone had the background knowledge and interest to be best qualified to make reasonable decisions relating to water use, storage, and land use.
With the removal of elected members wasting time and resources it is probably the time to look at, dare I say it, a super council approach to local government with two councils in the Ecan area one from the existing northern boundary to the south boundary of the Rangitata catchment and a second based on the South Canty North Otago district where the Waitaki catchment is the dominating geographical feature.
From where I sit, Dame Margaret and her fellow commissioners are making better quality decisions and making more progress than the sum of the rubbish that the disfunctional” Ecant” has made in its nearly 20 years of dithering, infighting and vain attempts at Empire building.
Of course the bloody socialists and others are gutted at losing a path to power, money and glory that was all about them and precious little about the rest of the citizenry
October 12th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
what can we say except that this is our place,
Vote:we demand local representation,
if the NZ NAT Government does not give it to us ,
we will take it by other means,
be careful people of power
October 12th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
pq,
They did. In the recent local elections. Your fellow voters turfed the former ECAN reps out (all except one.)
A very clear message
Vote: