Street Maryan: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 October 2007. Volume:642;Page:12327. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARYAN STREET (Labour): I rise to speak to the first reading of the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3). There are a couple of important issues in relation to this legislation not only in its content but in its process. TheRegulations Review Committee has been exercising itself recently with a review of regulation and subordinated legislation. The committee has—along with our Australian colleagues at conferences in recent times—considered such things as sunset clauses and whether legislation ought to have sunset clauses so that as a matter of course it comes back to the House for reconsideration.Those points are important when one considers the process of the drafting confirmation and implementation of legislation and its passage through this House. If we are going to have sunset clauses on legislation we would find it has a very salutary effect in that it means that at every point where there is a sunset clause there is a process by which that legislation is reviewed once more by Parliament. That is a very strong position. It is a very strong process. It means that the parliamentary scrutiny of legislation is paramount and is constantly reflected.This bill is a routine annual bill. Its purpose is to confirm and validate those items of subordinated legislation that will lapse unless we do this exercise by Act of Parliament by the end of this year. So there are a number of things in this legislation that—the previous speaker’s comments notwithstanding—would appear to be reasonably pedestrian but are however matters of real importance. When the matters are to do with social security benefits New Zealand superannuation war pensions or commodity levies—particularly those relating to fisheries—they are matters that are of importance and they are significant to the ongoing operation regulation and maintenance of those industries.I pick up a particular point that the previous speaker made in relation to the Gambling Act 2003 and the order within this bill made under that Act. This legislation specifies the problem-gambling levy which will be payable from between 1 July 2007 and 20 July 2010 by gaming-machine operators or casino operators the Lotteries Commission and the New Zealand Racing Board. I am keen to tell the House that Sue Bradford of the Green Party has raised concerns with Ministers about the problem-gambling levy and the way that it is set. It is important for this House to know that the Government is committed to these matters being reviewed within 18 months. That is a particular concern that has been raised with Ministers by the Green Party and that has been recognised by Ministers. I felt it was important that the House was advised of that matter.These regulations and provisions—the levies and so on—that are contained in this legislation need to be renewed and they need to be applied after consideration by this House because at each turn it means that these provisions will get renewed scrutiny. I alluded to this earlier in my speech but it seems to me that it may well be worth this House’s consideration in a more general forum or discussion and perhaps through the forthcoming report of the Regulations Review Committee that a number of other pieces of legislation which impact either on industry or on the provision of benefits and orders to individuals and families—and by those I mean such things as superannuation and war pensions—always have sunset clauses attached so that they can be scrutinised afresh by the whole of Parliament.This bill will be referred to the Regulations Review Committee I am sure at the end of this first reading but one of the committee’s functions—and this goes to the question raised by the previous speaker Pita Sharples—is around whether sufficient consultation has occurred in the renewal and the promulgation of these regulations. One of the things we always do in the Regulations Review Committee—and the member who spoke before me is very familiar with this because he sat for a time on the committee—is routinely ask whether the obligations to consult have been met. We have needed on occasion to ask for reports about the consultation processes that have been undertaken with respect in particular to fishing quota and levies in the fisheries area. Theconsultation with tangata whenua and the fisheries organisations has always been taken into account. We have asked questions about the consultation process received reports on it and have been ultimately satisfied that appropriate consultation has been undertaken. Where we have not been satisfied we have asked those bodies to go back to do consultation again. So the member who spoke before me is aware that consultation does occur and that the Regulations Review Committee does require it to occur.In conclusion I commend this bill to the House and particularly draw attention again to the concerns that the Green Party has raised about the way the problem-gambling levy has been set and the Government’s commitment to reviewing that within the next 18 months. Thank you.