Lee Melissa: Standards and Accreditation Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Standards and Accreditation Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3405. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): It is a pleasure to rise to speak on the second reading of the Standards and Accreditation Bill. I begin by thanking the member who just sat down Kris Faafoi. In his opening remarks he talked about the way that the Commerce Committee actually operates in a collegial manner and I have to agree with him—Chris Bishop: Very well chaired.MELISSA LEE: Thank you very much Mr Bishop. I have to agree with him that I think we do try as a committee to work together and respect the fact that different members may have a different view. We even run a Twitter competition on who in our committee bakes the best cakes and so far I have to say that the effort that Judith Collins and Clare Curran—[Interruption] They actually did much better than some of the other members who had gone and purchased their cookies and some of their names will remain hidden.The purpose of this bill as the Minister has laid out and spoken about is to amend and consolidate the law relating to standards and conformity assessment bodies and to repeal and replace the Standards Act 1988 and the Testing Laboratory Registration Act 1972 to ensure that New Zealand’s standards and conformance systems are in fact viable well functioning and meet the needs of businesses regulators and consumers into the foreseeable future. When we actually look at standards I guess we need to discuss exactly what standards are and why they are in fact so important to New Zealand’s economy and safety. Standards are agreed specifications for products processes services and performances. In addition they are generally voluntary. Firms can choose to use them to support competitiveness firm productivity and trade. If for example an electrical product is marked as having met a standard it has satisfied the minimum safety requirements and therefore it is easy to see why standards are crucial for our safety.But what impact do they actually have on our economy? I think earlier other members have talked about the Standards Council. Currently the Standards Council maintains a catalogue of more than 3200 standards where 82 percent of those are joint Australia - New Zealand standards many of which are based on international standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization and International Standards Certifications. Standards underpin billions of dollars of exports and enable New Zealand firms to be internationally competitive. Standards provide access to markets and give quality assurance of products and technologies that New Zealand uses on a daily basis. Standards improve the effectiveness safety and reliability of many goods and services used by consumers and businesses.The purpose and aim of the Standards and Accreditation Bill I have actually mentioned before. Standards solutions help to keep homes public buildings playgrounds electrical appliances and health services safe. For example in New Zealand we can go to a doctor knowing that they have received the appropriate formal training needed to be a doctor and to best serve the interests of the patients concerned. However in some other countries patients do not always have the peace of mind that they have in New Zealand and question the standards that are set in place—for example for the training that the said doctor might have actually gone through. I think in the previous reading in the first reading I talked about electricity and how different countries actually have different—Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: Voltage.MELISSA LEE: —voltage the kinds of sockets that they have. Thank you very much Mr Kanwal Bakshi. Thank you for giving me that word. Having standards actually means that we can go right across the—would it not be fabulous if we had the same socket for the rest of the world so we did not have to take away different jacks whenever we travel overseas?Kris Faafoi: Imagine.MELISSA LEE: Imagine that—imagine that. And you are opposed to having standards.At present New Zealand has measures in place to ensure that standards are met and satisfied but improvements could be made to our existing standards arrangements. For example in 2012 the standards and conformance infrastructure review happened triggered by concerns held by the Standards Council about the financial stability of New Zealand’s standards arrangements following several years of deficits and the variable demands for standards. The Standards and Accreditation Bill responds to the finding of the review. During the select committee process we also heard that at different times different industries are satisfied about some portions of the standards we actually have and other industries are not very happy. And when membership of the council changes then the other industries are quite happy while the new group is not necessarily happy. I think that was when the select committee talked about the perceived conflicts of interest that might actually appear in the council and how this proposed change may fix some of the issues.Our National-led Government is focused on boosting growth and creating jobs. Through the Standards and Accreditation Bill we can contribute towards a more productive and competitive economy. Standards can be improved in a variety of ways and also for a variety of sectors ranging from as I said the energy sector to the health sector the disabilities sector environmental management information technology—to name just a few—and many sectors where standards could be improved. We sought stakeholder views on the effectiveness of current arrangements for standards and on options for changes to organisational arrangements for how standards could be developed and improved.The Standards and Accreditation Bill aims to improve the current way things are done. What we do now and how we actually improve things is by establishing a new independent statutory board to improve New Zealand standards to ensure that independent standards development committees will continue to comprise industry and technical experts. There were some concerns that that might not actually happen but we are saying that it will happen. Consumer representatives and regulators will be involved. Establishing a new independent statutory officer within the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to oversee the development of standards I think is very important.I have mentioned this in different conversations that I have had about this. In some countries having an officer within an organisation a ministerial organisation like the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is seen as giving credence to something that the Standards Council could possibly never give the credibility for. And having an officer based out of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is actually so much more important when we are doing trade with overseas countries—for example with Asian countries. I think it is very important that we have this establishment of a statutory officer within the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.We are amending the Copyright Act to preserve existing intellectual property standards. I think it is very important that to protect our standards we are protecting the copyright that already exists. In short the new bill will better align standards development with important Government priorities that are vital for our economy such as innovation and trade facilitation as I have said earlier. When we are dealing with other countries it is actually very important to see that officers are based within a Government department rather than in an organisation that is not part of the Government.The Commerce Committee received 21 submissions. I know that Mr Faafoi talked about some of those. In fact we heard 13 submissions. I believe that the committee had a very robust discussion and we came to a good conclusion. I think this is a fantastic bill. I commend it to the House.