Finlayson ChristopherHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National): What a dreary presentation by the Leader of the House of such an exciting and riveting topic. He talks about the 100-day programme of this Government when we all know that the Legislation Bill is as a result of my ideas and my work and my inspiration.Hon Chris Hipkins: Oh so modest!Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: That is the truth I say to Mr Hipkins and his comments have as much credibility as the comments by the North Korean leader about the desirability of world peace.This is an extremely exciting and riveting topic and one that deserves a lot of attention from the likes of Mr Twyford because it's the transport ministry that will gain most from the kinds of changes that we're talking about here. So listen very carefully while I take the House through it in a far more exciting and compelling way than the Leader of the House.There are a number of major changes to this legislation which improve the quality of what was the Legislation Act of 2012. The first point which the Leader of the House adverted to reasonably briefly is to bring into the Legislation Act all provisions relating to interpretation of statutes. The Interpretation Act 1999 hasn't been looked at for quite a number of years and it was always intended when the 2012 legislation was passed that in the fullness of time the interpretation provisions would be brought in and that's happening now.The second point is the one that he did spend a little bit of time on and that is access to secondary legislation. I was frankly shocked when Miriam Dean reported on the whey protein scandal that she had had a great deal of difficulty gaining access to the relevant documents because they were unable to be found. That's totally unacceptable. A similar incident occurred in England some years ago where a person was convicted of an offence against a certain regulation. The case went on appeal to the Court of Appeal and just before the Court of Appeal judgment was to be released it was found out that the regulation that had been the subject of the prosecution had in fact been repealed and replaced by another regulation. Both the judges in the various courts defence counsel prosecution counsel—no one knew about the existence of the new regulation. That kind of situation is wholly unsatisfactory. So the changes in terms of bringing access to secondary legislation are of vital importance to the rule of law that we all subscribe to.The third point is the question of improving the quality of disclosure so that when legislation is introduced the various elements of it are properly the subject of inquiry and the quality of regulatory statements is greatly improved. Then fourthly there are some minor changes to the legislation. But what we have here is very high-quality legislation dealing with lawmaking in this country and it's something that will be of great benefit to whatever Government is in power.The final point I would make is that in the 2012 legislation and it's carried over here there is an ability to revise bills. The Attorney-General is required at the beginning of each Parliament to announce what bills are going to be revised. Three years ago I did that in relation to a number of statutes dealing with contract and commercial law. As a result of that work and the work of people like John Priestley a retired High Court judge who was responsible for certifying that the bill could proceed Parliament passed in a truncated procedure what is now known as the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017 which has been widely acclaimed and indeed the Parliamentary Counsel Office has received an award for it.The National Party when in Government had a very important programme of a continual revision of statutes. Just last week the Minister of Internal Affairs was referring to the complete rewrite of the legislation relating to births deaths and marriages. Later on this evening we will be looking at a complete rewrite of the trusts legislation—again as a result of the work that my party did when it was in Government. On the Order Paper there are a number of other bills that deal with this issue: the social security rewrite which is hugely significant. The Social Security Act 1964 has been the subject of numerous amendments over the years and I certainly hope the Government will move on that legislation because it's incredibly important to have up-to-date legislation in that area. The Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill should have been dealt with in the previous Parliament but there was some petty and ignorant opposition to it by the Labour Party.The other piece of legislation that has been the subject of a rewrite is Te Ture Whenua legislation which again has been mindlessly opposed by certain people. Legislation affecting Māori land law has been amended on average once every year for the last 100 years. This is a complete rewrite. We've heard some frankly stupid arguments that the 1993 legislation is a taonga. How could legislation on its own be a taonga that one could never interfere with? It's an absurd proposition but that's the level of the quality of argument that there has been against that legislation.So it's incredibly important that there be systematic revision of legislation. That is certainly what the National Government proceeded to do during its nine years in Government and I certainly hope that this Government will do so in the 18 months that it's going to be in power. So I commend the bill to the House.