Our ECan councillors sacked: Our rights trampled on

[Update: The ECan issue resulted in a 30 strong demonstration outside David Carter's office on Ferry Road, where a letter was delivered to help make clear what this author feels.] Cantabrians have just lost their democratic right to elected regional representation. I can't believe that National have sacked all the Environment Canterbury councillors without asking us, the people, for our opinion.

We could have changed them all via our electoral process in the spring of this year, but no, instead the National government has decided that we don't know how to run our region and we are not capable of elected people who can. Instead National appointees are going to be running our region.

This means we are paying taxation without representation - a breach of democratic rights. The question is how can National get away with this? They are passing a bill under urgency meaning, there is no right of reply from us the people affected, there is no select committee consideration, in other words no say.

Appointees are not acceptable. I demand my right to vote for those who ask me for taxes, so I can choose to use my vote for those whose policies I believe in.

This is all about water and who gets first usage rights. Make no mistake fellow Cantabrians, if the National government gets away with this, water will become a pay per use commodity for everyone and yet we will have no say in how it is allocated, collected or even treated for reuse.