National's duplicity on water revealed

National’s duplicity on water issues has been revealed by news that senior ministers were working to weaken Water Conservation Orders and advance irrigation in Canterbury, at the same time as telling the environment movement they were committed to collaborating on water management, the Green Party said today.

“This Government has made public overtures about working collaboratively on water issues, but behind the scenes it is a different story,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said.

Documents obtained under the Official Information Act reveal that as early as September last year, John Key and several senior ministers had identified Water Conservation Orders on the Rakaia and Hurunui Rivers as potential barriers to advancing irrigation in Canterbury, and discussed options for removing or circumventing them.

“Water Conservation Orders are the national parks of rivers. Any weakening of them is a direct attack on the environment,” Dr Norman said.

“John Key’s not-so-hidden agenda is to advance irrigation schemes in Canterbury for the benefit of big dairy companies at the expense of our wild rivers.”

The documents reveal that the Prime Minister took part in several meetings with other Ministers after September 2009 at which ways to circumvent or amend the process for Water Conservation Orders in Canterbury were explicitly discussed.

“These documents show that the attack on Water Conservation Orders in the ECan legislation was a foregone conclusion,” Dr Norman said.

“Even before Ministers commissioned Wyatt Creech to deliver his flawed report, they had made up their mind that Canterbury’s rivers were there for the taking.

“This shows a lack of good faith on the part of the Government in dealing with the Land and Water Forum, which has been tasked with collaboratively exploring and making recommendations about future water management,” Dr Norman said.

Land and Water Forum Chair Alastair Bisley told the National Party Blue Green Conference in October that the Forum would only succeed if there was “Ministerial resolution in repelling backdoor representations”.

“On the contrary, these papers show that Ministers were actively working with irrigation applicants on the Hurunui and Rakaia Rivers and were drafting legislation to progress their backdoor representations for irrigation on these rivers,” Dr Norman said.

“Apparently John Key's Government has no qualms about manoeuvring behind the scenes to sack an entire regional council and gut Water Conservation Orders to pursue a predetermined irrigation agenda.

“The big agribusiness lobby stands to benefit, while the public and the environment will be the losers at the end of the day,” Dr Norman said.