Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. This is a very important piece of legislation and actually you would be forgiven for thinking from Mr Ball's speech that this was some dry-as-dishwater bill that basically did nothing. But actually this piece of legislation when it becomes an Act will become part of the New Zealand constitution and it is absolutely of critical importance to the rule of law that people out there listening and watching the debate know where to find the law of New Zealand. It is absolutely critical.Up until now when it comes to what are known in the vernacular as DINLIs—disallowable instruments that are not legislative instruments; this strange type of legislative instrument that actually affects people's rights and obligations—people out there listening and watching tonight will not have been able to find in a consistent way things that affect their day-to-day lives. There are hundreds of organisations out there empowered by statute and empowered by regulation to make rules and make regulations and make proscriptions for people that affect how they live their lives.There are all sorts of bodies out there and one just has to go and read the very good reports of the Regulations Review Committee to find out about all of these various bodies. They're small bodies that have the power to—and do—enact what are essentially legislative instruments that affect people's rights and obligations.I had the privilege of serving on the Regulations Review Committee in the last Parliament and I am very pleased to see this bill come to fruition because the Attorney-General the Hon Christopher Finlayson—Hon Christopher Finlayson: Former.CHRIS BISHOP: Former Attorney-General I should say. Sorry sir.Hon Christopher Finlayson: I know my place.CHRIS BISHOP: He's saying he knows his place. He'll be back—he'll be back. The former Attorney-General the Hon Christopher Finlayson recognised the power of the Regulations Review Committee. It's fair to say that not all Attorneys-General have done that in the past but this former Attorney-General responded very positively and indeed possibly you could even say proactively to the report of the Regulations Review Committee. That committee was chaired—very well I should say—by the Hon David Cunliffe and I served on that committee with the Hon David Parker. So it was a very high-powered committee. We issued a very good report that called for precisely what is being enacted in Part 5 of this very good bill.The other point I want to make just in the closing of my remarks is to say that the Government should listen and reflect on what is in this bill because what this bill does is put requirements on departments and on Government agencies to disclose information about particular bills when they introduce them: useful background material and policy information quality assurance assessments and processes and any departures from specified legislative guidelines—that's in Part 4 of the bill.We already have noticed from this Government that for the bills they are about to ram through under urgency before Christmas they have been told to ignore those requirements. They have told their Government departments Dispense with the regulatory impact statements; dispense with the quality assurance requirements. This is part of our 100-day plan; therefore we can just ram things through." That's outrageous.This bill will stop Governments doing that in the future and it's a good bill. I commend it to the House."