Simpson Scott; Parker DavidHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Chair. Look this is a piece of frankly quite pragmatic legislation and His Majesty's loyal Opposition is supporting it. But there are a couple of questions I have for the Minister in the chair and notwithstanding the practical aspects of this piece of legislation I'm interested to know just how the Minister expects the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to distinguish between what is a credible alternative jurisdiction and which aspects of information and data they will take into account and which they might reject. The whole purpose of this piece of legislation is to frankly stop us having to reinvent the wheel in a uniquely Kiwi way with every hazardous substance particularly if there is another jurisdiction of a kindred like to our own with a robust process and a credible reliable analysis regime where we can use that data and that information. So my question really relates to how the Minister thinks that the EPA will actually come to a conclusion about which jurisdictional interests will be acceptable and which won't. Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Thank you for that question. This matter is addressed at new section 76E in clause 11 of the bill which is entitled Authority may recognise overseas bodies as international regulators" and then it sets out at subsections (1) to (4) the process that the authority has to go through before it can recognise one or more overseas bodies as international regulators for the purposes of the relevant sections of the Act. The authority before it does by notice in the Gazette give that notice of recognition has to publicly notify its intention to issue the notice give interested persons a reasonable time to make submissions on the proposal and consult representative groups within the hazardous substances industry Government departments WorkSafe and Crown entities whom the authority considers appropriate in each case. So it has to go through that process before it can issue its Gazette notice and then there's a set of prohibitions that are listed at new section 76E(3) where the authority must not recognise an overseas body unless the authority has considered whether the body operates in a manner comparable to the authority in regulating hazardous substances the legislative regime in that country is comparable to ours and the information from that body is readily accessible by the authority. The amendment that was added at the Environment Committee was the addition of subsection (4) which relates to amendments that can be made by the authority to the notice. Some of those are minor and technical and others have to go through a process. Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you to the Minister for that helpful intervention. I want to just tease it out a little bit more in terms of the definition and element of what is reasonable. Subsection (4) says that applications with "significant cultural economic environmental ethical health or international effects; or … significant effects in an area in which the Authority lacks sufficient knowledge or expertise." This is subsection (5): "The Authority must—(a) do everything reasonably practicable on its part to consult all persons who in its opinion are likely to be directly affected by the reassessment; and (b) give those persons a reasonable opportunity to make submissions and comments to the Authority on the reassessment;". So it's this test of reasonableness because I can imagine that there will be instances where for instance the Minister will know as I do that we have some very active and participatory environmental NGOs who may have a completely different view as to what is reasonable in these situations and that might differ significantly from the Environmental Protection Authority's view as to reasonableness. Does the Minister expect that this test will be judicially tested or is he happy that previous case law about what is reasonable and not reasonable will apply? Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Could I just inquire of the member what clause of the bill he is referring to? Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): It's in new section 53AA in clause 7 halfway down page 5 of the bill as reported back from the select committee particularly subsections (4) (3) and (5)."