Of course, that's what democracy is. It gives the voters—the people who pay rates or, in our case, the people who pay taxes—the opportunity to vote for people to represent them in decision making over the way public funds are used to buy stuff that gives social benefits. So we elect people to make decisions about things that have social benefits using public funds—money collected from ratepayers in the case of Environment Canterbury—and that's why we insist they have a democratic mandate: no taxation without representation. 