Hipkins Chris: Standards and Accreditation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Standards and Accreditation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5036. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): I want to take only a very brief call on the Standards and Accreditation Bill because I basically have a few questions for the Minister in the chair the Hon Paul Goldsmith and I am sure that they are ones that he will be able to deal with relatively quickly.Sitting here in the Chamber tonight I picked up a copy of the bill and I read Part 2 clause 39 which is the regulation-making powers that the bill provides. There are not many people in the House who get excited about regulation-making powers in bills but I am one of them—I am one of them. As a previous member of the Regulations Review Committee I am one of the people who find regulation-making powers quite interesting. Clause 39 states: “The Governor-General may by Order in Council make regulations providing for any matter that is contemplated by this Act as necessary—(a) for giving it full effect; or (b) for its administration.” Those are incredibly wide-ranging regulation-making powers and although I have looked at a number of regulation-making powers in bills I do not think that I have seen ones that are quite so broad.So my question for the Minister in the chair really is what the justification is for there being such a wide regulation-making power in this legislation. We have established over a long period of time the primacy—the sovereignty—of Parliament when it comes to establishing the laws of the land. The Regulations Review Committee has typically taken a very dim view of legislation that creates uncertainty by giving overwhelming regulation-making power to the executive which this very very broad clause seems on the face of it to do. The current approach to regulation making tightened up significantly after the Muldoon Government because back then Rob Muldoon would frequently pass laws through the House that basically gave him regulation-making power to effectively make new laws without reference back to the Parliament.Chris Bishop: The Economic Stabilisation Act.CHRIS HIPKINS: Chris Bishop is very excited about that. He works for Steven Joyce—or he used to work for Steven Joyce. I think that is a regulation-making power they would have loved to have and he would have loved to have when Chris Bishop was working for him.The reality is we frown upon those and we frown upon those because we have an established principle that it is the Parliament that should be making laws not the executive. While the executive proposes laws to the legislature it is not solely responsible for their passage. The House has that prerogative. We put them through a select committee process and we make sure that they are robustly tested and yet this clause here—clause 39—seems to give the executive the power to make any nature of regulations under this bill. That does seem incredibly broad.So I guess the question that I have for the Minister in the chair is: why such a broad regulation-making power? Have I misinterpreted that? But I do not think I have because I have looked at many regulation-making powers provided for in bills and in legislation and I have never yet seen one that is as broad as this one. So I think it is important that where the House is giving such wide regulation-making powers to the executive that is tested.I note the Regulations Review Committee has provided feedback on another part of the bill which is clause 2 the commencement clause. I am sure the debate on that will tease out the concerns of the Regulations Review Committee on that but I notice that it has not provided feedback on that particular clause. It may well be that there is a good explanation for why such a broad power is being allowed but I would very much like to hear it. I hope that the Minister in the chair will give the Committee the benefit of that argument and that information before we vote on Part 2 clause 39. Thank you.