Smith NickNew Clause 2A Expiry of this ActHon Dr NICK SMITH (National): This is a very important amendment that tests the integrity of the Government's assurance that it is a temporary bill. I've checked. The Minister has said This is temporary law." over 20 times. In the earlier clause that we've debated she has repeatedly said it is a short-term fix. The line of argument that the Minister has used is this: I'm using this appalling process giving people a day to make submissions a six-day select committee process—a law that would normally take nine months to get through Parliament is being introduced and rammed through under urgency. She says "I'm doing all of that because further down the track the Government's going to have a proper consultation process to have an in-depth look around these laws and to come up with a proper answer." Well if that is the case then every law reform that's been done in that way has had an expiry clause.Parliament will remember that just prior to Christmas we did an urgent party pills bill. In that bill the Government said "Hey look there's an urgent issue. We want to get testing into party pills and so we're going to ram it through but what we're going to do is we're then going to have a thorough process down the track and that is going to involve consultation and good lawmaking and we have an expiry clause in the bill." Well how come this has no expiry clause? It's because it's a stitch-up. It is a rogue process for a Government that will sell its soul ride roughshod over what it said at the 2020 election. It is riding roughshod over select committee process.I do want to test something the Minister said. The Minister said "We can justify the short process because this issue has been around for a long time." So I'd like to ask the Minister a question. The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary was proposed 22 years ago.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member will resume his seat. This debate is narrow in nature. The member is speaking to his own Supplementary Order Paper. I would encourage him to stick to the very narrow question which is that clause 2A gives effect to repealing the bill after the next local body election. So I'd invite the member to stick to that.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Well the core issue is: is this temporary law or is this permanent law? It's as simple as that isn't it? The Minister has said it is temporary law. Temporary law has an expiry date. So is this Parliament to take the Minister of the Crown at her word that it is a temporary bill? Members opposite I'm one of those old-fashioned people that if people say what they mean and do as they say—if the Minister says that it's short term if the Minister says that it is a temporary provision then it should have an expiry clause. Or I can only conclude this is just a cynical manipulation of the parliamentary process that really the reason this is being done under urgency is because the Government knows it's controversial. And if it can ram it through Parliament without giving New Zealanders an opportunity to have a say on it then they can get it off the agenda and just ram it through.Hon Member: Shameful!Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Righto that would be shameful. But I'm going to take the Minister at her word and I'm going to say well let's assume that what she says is true and it's temporary then the Parliament should set up the incentives. Here's the problem: if they get what they want with this bill why would they bother doing the consultation down the track? Everything that's in this bill is part of the permanent law. The only way this Parliament can exert good faith on the Minister and on the Government is to put it in the law and have an expiry clause and that says if the Government doesn't do what it says it's going to do have a public consultation process go out and have a bill going through the proper process allow a six-month normal select committee process—they can do all of that. But my clause having an expiry clause ensures they must do it. I tell you Minister I've heard a hundred times Ministers saying "We're going to do a review. We're going to have consultation." Nothing ever ever happens. What the expiry clause in this bill will do is ensure that we keep the Government to its word. That is why it would be absolutely consistent with what we did on party pills. It would be absolutely consistent. I don't know whether people remember a bill that was on the waka hopping that Michael Cullen did. In fact actually I've replicated the expiry clause from that time. An expiry clause is needed in this bill."