United Future Backslides Over Waitaki Bill

ACT New Zealand Rural Affairs Spokesman Gerry Eckhoff today accused United Future of backsliding on its promise to support the allocation of Waitaki River water rights to Mackenzie Basin farmers.

"Yesterday, United Future failed to support an amendment to the Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill that would have allowed farmers to extract water from the upper Waitaki catchment for the purpose of irrigation and stock," Mr Eckhoff said.

"Every political party, with the exception of Labour, had indicated their support for the farmers' case. If United Future had stood by its assurance the amendment would have been passed.

"United Future's unexplainable flip-flop smacks of a deal with Labour made behind closed doors. It is entirely regrettable that it decided to back down on its word in the interests of a future tradeoff with the Government," Mr Eckhoff said.

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