Worth Richard: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and  Validation) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Worth Richard: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and  Validation) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6375] 
Dr RICHARD WORTH (National) 
: 
 I am grateful for the encomium offered by the previous speaker. I assure him that when this bill—if it passes this stage—is referred to the Regulations Review Committee the committee will exercise diligence in meeting the report-back date and looking appropriately at these issues. 
As the previous speaker said this is an annual bill that confirms and validates subordinate legislation; subordinate legislation being orders and regulations made under certain Acts that provide that such subordinate legislation will lapse after a certain time unless it is confirmed or validated by Act of Parliament. In this case we are talking about orders made under eight statutes. 
Just to give an example of the process if we look at one of the statutes the Biosecurity Act 1993 we see in section 137 provision for levies to be made from time to time by Order in Council for the purposes of wholly or partially funding a service provided or function performed by a department for the purposes of the Act. In section 138 “Orders to be confirmed” some time frames are established that state that unless an order is confirmed it is deemed to have been revoked by a particular period. So really the task of the committee to which this legislation is referred is to look at those orders and see whether there is appropriate justification for them to continue. 
I think we all know that in the world of regulations and deemed regulations there are large numbers of regulations and orders that probably are not required. It is a reality that just as the statute book each year grows longer and longer so it is with delegated legislation. It is interesting to reflect that in 1988 the Regulations Review Committee which was then chaired by Sir Douglas Graham conducted an inquiry into all the regulations that were in force as at 14 November 1988. The committee collected all of those regulations together and wrote to the various Government departments and administering bodies with a series of questions along the lines of which regulations were still required why—in a brief statement—they were required how often they had been used over each of the past 3 years and which ones could be revoked. And—I think to the surprise of the select committee and possibly the public who might have read the report that followed—they found that over 400 regulations could be revoked immediately. 
Hon Member 
: Just like that. 
Dr RICHARD WORTH 
: Just like that. And that constituted 10 percent of the total of the regulations in force. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: But none of these ones. 
Dr RICHARD WORTH 
: Well we do not know I say to Dr Cullen whether they looked at those particular regulations. So the select committee recommended that those regulations be revoked immediately and they were. 
To come back though to this bill and the confirmation and validation provisions I note that we have orders made under the Biosecurity Act the Commodity Levies Act the Customs and Excise Act the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Act the Social Security Act the Road User Charges Act the Tariff Act and the War Pensions Act. There is just one subtlety in the legislation and that is the issue of confirmation on the one hand and confirmation and validation on the other. 
The bill of course is an opportunity for Parliament to decide whether in each case the effect of the relevant sunset clauses should be avoided and the subordinate legislation continue in force. That is effected by confirmation when the House considers that the policy that lies behind the relevant regulation continues to justify it. It is right to say that amongst the areas of lawmaking where Parliament has decided it does not wish to give the executive carte blanche in the making of regulations but wishes to reserve to itself this extra control such expiry provisions are appropriate. 
Most subordinate legislation referred to in this bill is confirmed but the orders made under the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act the Social Security Act the Tariff Act and the War Pensions Act are both validated and confirmed because the Acts under which they are made provide that they expire at a stated time unless earlier validated and confirmed. The validation as a matter of constitutional law is limited as its purpose is only to prevent the expiry of those orders and the validations that are effected do not also cure any invalidity. Finally I say that the bill also provides that the resulting Act will bind the Crown. 
I have made comment as to the number of regulations that are probably not required and there is particular work going on at the moment in that area. In part this work is led by the Government in—I believe—a somewhat clumsy approach reported to the Cabinet policy committee as a document entitled  
Quality Regulation Review—First Milestone Report 
. But the Regulations Review Committee is itself carrying out a detailed inquiry that will look at this issue. The inquiry will also look at mechanisms to provide ongoing and systematic review of regulations and at an issue that I think is increasingly important which is the provisions in the Cabinet  
Step by Step Guide 
 requiring regulatory impact statements. If one looks at those particular provisions one can see that they are so shrouded with exceptions that regulatory impact statements are often not forthcoming—or if they are forthcoming they are not sufficiently enlightening. Although the Regulations Review Committee’s jurisdiction is restricted to delegated legislation it is in that area of delegated legislation that significant compliance cost is imposed. 
National supports this bill and its passage to the relevant select committee.