The government announced a package of measures for the aquaculture industry this afternoon - including a power for Ministers "to amend regional coastal plans in exceptional circumstances where it is in significant regional or national interest". So instead of regional councils deciding which areas are used for aquaculture in accordance with the wishes and interests of local communities, the Minister will. And they will even unilaterally decide what is in a region's interests, irrespective of what the people of that region may say to the contrary.
That piggy little cackle you can hear is the ghost of Robert Muldoon again. He may be dead, but his authoritarian centralising urges are still alive and well in the National Party.
