"Industrial-grade hypocrisy'' is how Dunstan ward Otago Regional councillor Michael Laws sums up claims by the Labour party that localism has been denied, with regard to the Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP).

Cr Laws drew attention to the previous interventions from the previous Government on the regional council, including how the former chair Marion Hobbs back in 2022 asked Labour to sack the ORC and appoint commissioners if she lost the council vote.

Four councillors - including the current chair Gretchen Robertson - wrote to Labour Minister David Parker seeking intervention when they lost the policy vote around the table.

“And Labour have the hypocrisy to claim that elected councillors contacting government ministers is destabilising and an affront to local democracy,” he said.

Other interventions by the previous Government included the appointment of Professor Peter Skelton to inquire into the regional council’s consent process, and two directives from Minister Parker to meet strict deadlines on the draft LWRP, including providing quarterly reports to

the government.

Dunstan ward councillor Alexa Forbes of Queenstown - one of the seven councillors in support of notifying the plan that was recently halted by the Government - said the Regional Council had been prevented from playing its part in democracy and its future.

She believed the Government had made it loud and clear when it intervened, that if regional councils around New Zealand didn’t do as the Government recommended, they would suffer the consequences, 

But when prompted further on Cr Laws' latest allegations of hypocrisy she declined to comment.

“I’ve got too much on to waste time on arguing with Michael.”

In response to Cr Laws’ criticism, Labour’s environment spokeswoman, Dunedin MP Rachel Brooking said the two examples were very different, as one was following existing law to intervene, and the other was asking the regional council to stop work because the Government

planned to change it.

Meanwhile, an offer for the regional council to play a role in the review of the national direction for freshwater management remained on the table, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said last week.

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