Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18233. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) 
First Reading 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I move  
That the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) be now read a first time. 
 At the conclusion of the first reading debate I will move that the bill be referred to the Regulations Review Committee where I am sure under the estimable leadership of Dr Richard Worth the committee will deal expeditiously with the bill and return it to the House. This bill of course must pass before the end of the year not before the election in order to avoid certain rather nasty consequences for large numbers of people including New Zealand superannuitants. This is a routine annual bill to confirm and validate items of subordinate legislation that in accordance with the confirmation and validation provisions in the Acts under which the various instruments are made lapse at stated times unless earlier confirmed or validated by Act of Parliament.  
This year the bill provides for Parliament to confirm or validate and confirm 14 Orders in Council made under 10 Acts. Two apply movements in the CPI to the rates of social security benefits New Zealand superannuation and war pensions. There are four under the Customs and Excise Act 1996 and two of those apply movements in the CPI to rates of excise and excise-equivalent duties on alcohol and tobacco products. The other two prohibit the importation of trout and trout products and prohibit the export of cattle deer goats or sheep for slaughter except with the consent of the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.  
Two orders under the Tariff Act 1988 amend the Tariff concession reference No. 80. This concession covers the importation of passengers’ baggage and effects that are not intended for gift sale or exchange. Two of the orders deal with commodity levies which of course go through a process with the industries involved. Regulations made under the Animal Products Act 1999 increase total revenue for verification services provided by the verification agency and cap the new verification agency disestablishment charge.  
An order made under the Civil Aviation Act 1990 increases the annual levy to be paid to the Civil Aviation Authority by the Airways Corporation MetService and specified aerodromes to fund the aeronautical information service. An order amends the schedule of the Electronic Transactions Act 2002 which lists enactments that are excluded from the application of Part 3 of the Act.  
The final order to be confirmed is made under the Road User Charges Act 1977 and increases from 1 July certain rates of road-user charges. This is to ensure that operators of diesel vehicles contribute more equitably to the funding of land transport activities once all petrol excise duty is directed to the National Land Transport Fund. Effectively we are now moving to a fully hypothecated system of excise duty on petrol with all the money going into the National Land Transport Fund. Of course it is therefore necessary to adjust the road-user charge system to make sure that those who are using diesel vehicles and paying road-user charges are treated equitably—or more precisely that those with petrol vehicles are treated equitably in relation to those who have diesel vehicles and are paying road-user charges. 
Dr RICHARD WORTH (National) 
: 
 The previous speaker Dr Michael Cullen succinctly outlined the scope of the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) and as he said it is to go to the Regulations Review Committee. It is limited at this part of the urgency debate simply to the first reading. The plan of action is that it will go to the Regulations Review Committee which will meet next Wednesday and come to a view on whether these particular delegated provisions should be confirmed and validated.  
There are perhaps a couple of points to be made in the context of a first reading speech. First the purpose of the bill is to confirm and validate certain subordinate legislation that in accordance with confirmation and validation provisions in the Acts under which it is made lapse at a stated time unless confirmed or validated by Act of Parliament. So—if one likes to put it this way—there are a whole lot of sunset provisions in these delegated provisions which require for continued life a further parliamentary step. If one looks through the bill itself one sees that in some cases the subordinate legislation is to be confirmed and in other cases it is to be confirmed and validated. Nothing really turns on that; it simply relates to the empowering provision in the statute requiring validation or confirmation and validation.  
The step of confirmation and validation does not itself cure any invalidity in those particular provisions. As the previous speaker said a raft of statutes and associated delegated legislation is affected: the Animal Products Act the Civil Aviation Act the Commodity Levies Act the Customs and Excise Act the Electronic Transactions Act and so on. I thought I would just take as an example to illustrate the process one such Act and its related subordinate legislation. I have chosen the Civil Aviation Act 1990. It is interesting actually to see that the dates of all of these pieces of primary legislation are all now of an age—the latest would be 1999. So it seems that this drafting technique may not be in favour as much as it used to be.  
But just for example looking at the illustration I have chosen—the Civil Aviation Act—one sees in section 42A and the later provisions that follow a power given to the Governor-General to impose levies. The levies may be in respect of a range of aeronautical activity and services. But under section 42C there is provision for “Levy orders to be confirmed”. That is what we are talking about here. Under section 42C(2) “Every such Order in Council shall” expire at a fixed date “except so far as it is expressly validated or confirmed by Act of Parliament passed during that year;”. That is why Dr Cullen said that there is a degree of urgency in seeing this legislation in place before the end of the year.  
Then if one looks at the relevant piece of delegated legislation—in this case the Civil Aviation (Aeronautical Information Service) Levies Amendment Order 2008 which was made on 26 May—one sees that a range of levies are set for a number of airports throughout New Zealand. So the aeronautical information service levy for Christchurch for example is $39526 that for Wellington is $47852 and—the final example—that for Westport is $299.  
The Regulations Review Committee will go to all of the relevant ministries examine their responses for the justification for the legislation and then report to the House. I know it is certainly the hope of National Party members that we will see the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) back in the House in good order for the further steps that must necessarily follow—those further steps being a second reading Committee stage a third reading and the Royal assent. 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 I rise in support of the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) as well. I know that the bill will be well handled in the Regulations Review Committee chaired by our very able colleague Dr Richard Worth. I will just touch on a couple of issues that are of interest in this legislation.  
I refer specifically to clause 10 “Customs and Excise Act 1996” where subclause (a) states “Customs Import Prohibition (Trout) Order 2007 (SR 2007/298)”. When I look at the Order Paper I notice the Conservation (Protection of Trout as a Non-commercial Species) Amendment Bill in the name of the Hon David Parker languishing down at No. 51. I inform the House that when I arrived here—I think it was in the forty-fourth Parliament briefly when I first came here—that proposed legislation was sitting on the Order Paper at I think about No. 51 or 52 or somewhere in that order. Here we are today in the closing hours of the forty-eighth Parliament and I see that the Conservation (Protection of Trout as a Non-commercial Species) Amendment Bill is still on the Order Paper. It would be an interesting thing given that we have the Leader of the House here with us to find out whether the Leader of the House intends with similar legislation to this bill to bring forward the conservation of trout bill in this Parliament. Otherwise I am sure it will turn up at about No. 51 52 or 53—or something like that—in the forty-ninth Parliament.  
There is an interesting process on bills like this one and I notice that this is the No. 4 bill so I presume that it happens annually. Therefore for the last 4 years we have had a rollover provision—in this case the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4). It is a useful vehicle I think for the House to tidy up and validate bits of legislation that potentially would roll over—or will indeed roll over—and collapse if that did not happen. The only question I guess that comes from that is whether this is a good way to deal with legislation in general. If it is why are there not more Acts of Parliament that have—I am not sure whether this is the right legal term or not—a sunset clause in them? Such Acts would therefore roll over on a regular basis and then be subjected to a process such as that gone through in the Regulations Review Committee where the original intent of the Act or the reasons for the Act in the first instance would be able to be scrutinised and it would be deemed whether they were still valid.  
There will be an interesting situation going forward because I know that a colleague of mine not too far from where I am right now has some intentions in the future to bring about an opportunity for legislation to go through a filter whereby the cost of implementing that legislation versus the potential benefit from it will be scrutinised. This type of bill might be a vehicle for that to take place—or a part of that vehicle.  
I would also like to pick up on a comment the Minister made about the changes to the Road User Charges Act 1977 and to say that this is actually a good move. For too long although most people thought excise tax was taken for the purpose of roading it has not been spent for that purpose. 
Sitting suspended from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 National will be cooperating with the Government on the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) and supporting its referral to the Regulations Review Committee which Dr Worth spoke about earlier and of which I am a member along with Eric Roy on the National side. We will be happy to support this bill. We know how important it is to have this legislation back in the House and National will be supporting it.  
Bill read a first time.  
Bill referred to the Regulations Review Committee.