New Zealand's National Party marches back to power

[wickerwoman]

11. They also sacked ECan and replaced them with appointed cronies.

Not even the Republicans would have the cojones to fire a democratically elected regional council and replace them with pro-corporate and agribusiness appointees so they could divy up water rights in Canterbury without worrying about pesky little nuisances like human rights, public ownership of resources, the Treaty of Waitangi, etc.

They'll probably extend the CER Act as well which gives the Earthquake Recovery Minister carte blanche to change anything he doesn't like about local legislation in the name of the rebuild, regardless of what the local democratically elected Councils want. Christchurch will be saddled with massive debt to pay for vanity "anchor projects" it doesn't want or need just so John Key and Gerry Brownlee can swan around cutting ribbons and prove that they've shown "leadership" on the rebuild.