Turia Tariana: Regulatory Improvement Bill — First Reading 
Turia Tariana: Regulatory Improvement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3087] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to speak on the Regulatory Improvement Bill’s first reading. Winston Churchill and Rodney Hide have something in common apart from looks though Rodney is definitely in better shape. It was Churchill who famously said that if there are 10000 regulations all respect for the law is destroyed. Almost 80 years later Mr Hide has introduced a bill to do something once and for all to address the duplications gaps errors and inconsistencies that make a mockery of our law. It is great to see the ACT Party going to such steps to implement Maori Party policy. 
The Maori Party campaigned before the previous election on a commitment to support the growth and sustainability of small businesses. We committed ourselves to reduce the tax on businesses with a net income of $100000 or less from 33 percent to 25 percent. We laid it on the line that we wanted to support collective business development strategies that encouraged local and regional self-reliance. But a fundamental principle was woven through all of these policy targets: the understanding that we would review compliance costs with a view to their minimisation. We appreciate the support of the ACT Party in getting this policy in place with this bill. The bill sets in train some changes that make complete and utter sense. 
I know that the member from National who spoke before has already referred to the matter that I am about to raise. The way the law currently works is that commercial fishers are required to balance their catch with the annual catch entitlement as part of the quota management system. They have 20 days after the end of the fishing year to do so. However the register closes after the 15th day so what has been happening is that fishers have been incurring a debt in the form of an invoice for that debt. That just does not make sense. If the law says they have 20 days and someone shuts the register on day 15 that is as good a reason as any to change the legislation. The late Dr Martin Luther King once said: “Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws.” I have always heeded that bit of advice pretty seriously myself. 
Also affecting fishers are the changes to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Act. The changes in this bill will revoke the sections that deal with the removal of penalty fees and the ability to deduct costs from the collecting of levies. This change is not to suddenly stop collecting fees costs and levies—as much as I am sure that that would be a highly popular move. But the change is a good change anyway because these costs are already covered by the Fisheries Act 1996 so there is no good reason in my mind to repeat them. 
There are some other bits and pieces in this bill. The Designs Act will be amended so that when a design registration has lapsed because of the unintentional non-payment of a renewal fee the design registration can still be restored just by paying that registration fee. 
The only area we might need to take a closer look at relates to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. Tangata whenua have raised prolonged and consistent concerns around the risks to matauranga Maori the ownership of biological resources the inadequacy of the existing statutory frameworks and the fundamental significance of protecting article 2 rights to taonga katoa. The bill proposes that the Environmental Risk Management Authority should be able to delegate technical and administrative decision-making powers to its chief executive and other staff. The concern for us is to establish an ethical framework for moving forward such as that recommended by those who are pursuing the Wai 262 flora and fauna claim. We will be keeping a watch over the select committee process to hear what submitters have to say about the ways in which this bill takes into account the recommendations of Wai 262.  
We will therefore take our lead from tangata whenua in subsequent readings of the bill but for its first reading we are happy to support it. Kia ora.