Megan Woods

Environment Spokesperson

13 October 2015

Government hiding from ECan submissions

The Government has radically reduced the amount of time for public submissions on their controversial ECan bill, says Labour’s Environment spokesperson Megan Woods.

“This is just absurd stuff from the government. They’re using a sneaky tactic to rob Cantabrians of their right to have their say on a bill that’s about robbing them of their right to have their say on how their region is governed.

“Their shortened timeline could mean that instead of the usual six weeks, Cantabrians get just one week to submit their views on the bill.

“The government knows that what they are doing with ECan is deeply unpopular in Canterbury. They are trying to shorten debate so that people in Canterbury don’t hear about what they are doing.

“The right to submit views to Parliament is a fundamental part of our democracy. National is arrogantly robbing people of that right for political gain.

“That’s why I have moved an amendment to restore the full levels of consultation to ensure Cantabrians can have a say.

“National doesn’t think Cantabrians can be trusted to make decisions about their future, and now they are trying to hide from the public backlash,” says Megan Woods.

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