Shipley touted as ECan commissioner | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley is being touted as a front-running contender to sort out troubled Environment Canterbury as commissioner.

But Labour's Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns said it would be "quite outrageous" if Mrs Shipley were given the job.

"It's starting to look like a National Party jack-up," he said.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Nick Smith dismissed the rumours from several different sources yesterday as "premature speculation".

He said the Government had only just received ECan's response to Wyatt Creech's critical review and Cabinet had yet to decide if a commissioner would be appointed.

A former deputy leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister to Mrs Shipley, Mr Creech reviewed the regional council, recommending that elected councillors be replaced by commissioners and suggesting establishing a regional water authority to handle water resource consent applications.

Mr Burns said Prime Minister John Key indicated the Government was looking for efficiency in water resource management.

"Efficiency means more than handing over water rights willy nilly," he said.

"I would rather have councillors accountable to their community rather than putting another National Party appointee in charge of who gets our precious water resources.

"I don't think Jenny Shipley is the person to make sure our water quality, our birthright, is restored," Mr Burns said.

ECan councillor Jo Kane said the rumours were "quite concerning".

"We've put together a package that we believe would be in the best interests of Canterbury and we hear these rumours," she said. "This process is about honesty and I'd like to see that, quite frankly."

Ousted ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke said he had heard "a bit of a rumour two or three days ago."