Ryall Tony: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Ryall Tony: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6316] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: The National Party in Opposition is rising to draw the Committee’s attention to the amendments in the name of my colleague the MP for Clevedon Judith Collins. The amendments seek to streamline part of the schedules. One of the criticisms we have of the schedules and indeed of the bill is how overly prescriptive those clauses are. Not only does the bill set out how various subsidiaries will act but it also lists what one would have thought would be inherent in the appointment of anybody as a member of the board of the new authority. There is a requirement that each member must act in accordance with the Act; that members must act with honesty and integrity; that there is a duty of reasonable care diligence and skill; and that there is a duty of confidence. These are the very basics for anyone serving on any authority in this country and it seems ridiculous that they have to be spelt out in a schedule to a piece of legislation. I find that quite quite ridiculous. 
National members have moved amendments to make it clear that we do expect the board to act in a commercially prudent way because although this schedule talks about the board operating in a responsible financial manner it does not actually give a very clear point of direction as to the way the authority should operate. We believe it is quite ridiculous to have such detailed requirements within a schedule of the Act and we think it shows a real lack of confidence in those people who will be appointed as members of the authority. We can understand however that this is a Government that has had an unhappy relationship with Industry New Zealand because Industry New Zealand and its Minister dobbed it in with Sovereign Yachts dobbed it in with New Zealand Yachts and dobbed it in with a huge cheque to one of the richest companies in the country—the Warehouse. I can understand that the Government would be worried about that. 
John Key 
: Maybe they are working on becoming a little less controversial. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: As my colleague says maybe they are working on becoming a little less controversial. 
 When we look at the detail in those clauses we see that it is quite ridiculous. For example the third schedule talks about the procedures of the board and goes to the extent of declaring that notices of meeting must be in writing must be given by postal delivery or electronic communication and must be sent to the members’ or special advisers’ last known addresses in New Zealand. That is the minutiae of administrative detail and any halfway competent organisation deals with it without its being spelt out in legislation. The problem with spelling those things out in legislation is that when there is an omission by accident a whole lot of stuff—stuff that might have flowed otherwise—is invalidated. It is quite ridiculous. What will happen to the resolutions and the actions of this new authority if a notice of meeting is not written and a meeting has to be called urgently? There are many situations when meetings of directors have to be called urgently without unnecessary written notice. What happens to the board’s decision-making process if there is an emergency meeting of the board of the new authority and the meeting notice has not been circulated? This is the sort of thing that happens but the Government is trying to over-prescribe how an entity should operate. 
Members should look at schedule 3. Who presides at meetings will be set out in legislation. The Government is setting out in legislation how one votes on the new board that will run New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Issues like disclosure of interest—the various methods for directors not disclosing things—are being talked about. Those are the very basics that one would expect from any halfway decent group of people running an organisation and it is a lack of confidence that sees this Government promoting those sorts of overly prescriptive schedules. So I commend to the Committee the amendments in the name of my colleague Judith Collins.