Is the Government Stacking the Deck on ECan Democracy?
9 Sept Of late the signs have not been looking good: yet again Forest & Bird have had to complain that another of the vital water zone committees has been appointed but lacking sustainability & ecological expertise, ECan is Exile has its request for public release for individual payments to the government commissioners turned down and now questions have been raised about government ministers pre-editing the ECan commissioners professional reports prior to public release. There is speculation that the common denominator in all of these matters is ‘under the radar’ referral of key ECan decisions to government ministers offices before reports are released or decisions made. There are certainly worrying signs of concern within iwi circles around Canterbury that some reports of the Ngai Tahu ECan commissioner may have been subject to editing by the Local Government Ministers office. If this speculation has any basis in fact then this will be particularly galling given Minister Hides persona
