Heading off Labour Lianne at the pass

A betting person would be tipping odds in favour of the government appointing commissioners to earthquake-ravaged Christchurch City Council.

The loss of building consent accreditation was a gift from the gods – serving to distract from the failure of the inner-city rebuild and the glacial pace of home repairs in the suburbs.

Even the CBD rebuild’s greatest cheerleader Peter Townsend, chief executive of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, admits it has become bogged down.

And Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is threatening to compulsorily acquire private land required for the linchpin retail precinct in Cashel St because his Canterbury Earthquake recovery Authority and its subsidiary, Christchurch Central Development Unit, have proved unable to broker a deal among jostling developers.

Against this background the Christchurch council is a heaven-sent whipping boy.

And other political challenges are looming – notably Labour MP Lianne Dalziel’s certain victory in the mayoral contest in a couple of months.

While she is saying all the right things about co-operating with the various investigations into the council and her ability to work with central government, it is likely government members view her emergence with severe misgivings. Comments by Mr Brownlee indicate strong antipathy by him towards her.

Broken step
Her recent stellar polling convinced mayor Bob Parker that his case was hopeless, and he has broken step with his right-hand man of the past five years, city council chief executive Tony Marryatt, who is on “leave” while an investigation tries to pin down blame for the accreditation loss.

It is not even clear how significant the accreditation loss is, and there are contradictions in the account of events leading up to the accreditation withdrawal by International Accreditation NZ.

On TVNZ’s Q&A programme last weekend, building and construction minister Maurice Williamson said breaches were most likely to be technical, involving paper work rather than structural integrity issues. However, he says residents have been badly let down and deserve better (and what better than a new broom?).

The new political development this week was environment minister Amy Adams weighing in against the council’s resource consenting department – just in case the problems are endemic there, too.

If there is any greater evidence of the government moving to take over the Christchurch council it is the modus operandi of the 2010 takeover of the regional council, Environment Canterbury.

The similarities are compelling, even if the details are a little different.

Ecan was, for the first time in years, steered by ex-Labour MP Sir Kerry Burke and also for the first time included Greens around the council table. One year out from an election their electoral chances looked strong.

But staff had become bogged down in a wave of resource consent applications from farmers seeking water for irrigation.

Became a flood
This wave rapidly became a flood, partly because of the dairy expansion and partly due to a foolish decision to flag in advance that a moratorium would be placed on future water applications. Add to this the toxic resentments of district and city councils to the regional council’s overarching authority and the scene was set.

One of the ironies of this period is that Messrs Parker and Marryatt were widely attributed with helping to stoke the flames that consumed Ecan. Now, it seems, the fire they played with has burned them, too.

Bringing about the dismissal of Ecan’s democratically elected councillors involved similar processes to those we are seeing in Christchurch now.

The same Crown manager this week appointed to the city council, Doug Martin, was part of a team appointed to write a report on Ecan under the leadership of ex-National MP Wyatt Creech. It detailed the problems arising from the surge in water resource consent applications.

Mr Creech’s report also concluded council governance was not dysfunctional and robust councillor debate was merely democracy in action.

Regardless, the then environment minister Nick Smith, who oversaw the takeover, used the description “dysfunctional” at every opportunity when justifying eliminating any democratic representation at Ecan.

The description was also used by ministers David Carter (local government) and Amy Adams (environment) when justifying the extension of the Ecan commissioners’ rule until 2016.

Under the commissioners’ well-paid six-year reign – led by chairwoman Dame Margaret Bazley and her deputy, former Labour Minister David Caygill – property owners in Canterbury will have paid about $450 million in tax to a regional council on which they have had no representation and no input.

Ecan’s main role these days is to advance the cause of agriculture via water zone committees stacked with hand-picked members mostly involved in rural industry.

Takeover tactics
Another tactics leading up the Ecan takeover was to demoralise councillors and seek allies.

This led to a last-minute scramble by Ecan councillors to overturn chairman Sir Kerry in favour of ex-National MP Alec Neil. It failed to stave off the determination of the government to seize control, although Mr Neil maintained he subsequently found work as a resource consent panelist for Ecan.

At Christchurch council the disillusionment of Bob Parker acolytes may well fit this role.

For example, planning committee chairwoman Sue Wells, who has been a staunch defender of staff and the Parker/Marryatt axis, also claims she was kept out of the loop about the accreditation problem.

Her resentment and that of others in Mr Parker’s “A-team” of supporters may well play into the hands of a government planning to install commissioners.

For some of them it may seem better to have government control than retain democracy under a lurch to the left by disgruntled quake-weary voters.

But the high ground regained by Mr Parker, in what may be perceived as a graceful departure, should ensure at least New Year honours for his performances during the earthquakes.

c.hutch@clear.net.nz