Dalziel Lianne: Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Legislation Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4952. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
 I too rise to support the passage of the Legislation Bill. But I do want to comment on the sequence of events because it does seem to me that we have ended up delaying unnecessarily the passage of this particular measure. So we have got two Law Commission reports despite what my colleague Charles Chauvel said before:  
Presentation of New Zealand Statute Law 
 in 2008 and  
Review of the Statutes Drafting and Compilation Act 1920 
 in 2009. Actually that is a good track record to have Law Commission reports that are so recent in front of the House. When you compare how long other Law Commission reports take to get to the House that actually is quite good progress. 
However this legislation was introduced in mid-2010 and it was reported back from the Regulations Review Committee at the end of 2010 so we actually had 2011 to deal with this particular measure and pass it through all of its stages. It could have been well implemented by now but that did not happen. In fact it has been sitting on the Order Paper now for so long having been reported back from the Regulations Review Committee that I was not on the Regulations Review Committee at the time that this particular bill was considered. I think it is worth mentioning that it is unusual for the Regulations Review Committee to consider legislation. Normally we are considering regulations or we are considering regulation-making powers within statutes but to have a bill referred to us as a committee is actually an unusual step. I think it is worthy of merit and I think that is because of the content. The content of it does not sit very easily with any other subject committees because it is more of a general focus on the nature of the legislation itself. So it is not the content but the parameters of the law which is something that the Regulations Review Committee is very mindful of. 
 I too want to place on record my personal regret at the passing of George Tanner. In the time he was Chief Parliamentary Counsel at Parliament he gave tremendous service. When he moved to the Law Commission I felt that the Law Commission had gained something that the Law Commission really needed which was that quality perception around drafting. That needed to be strengthened within the Law Commission now that it has the responsibility of looking at drafting measures to sit with its reports to Parliament. I really think he was a great loss to New Zealand and certainly a great loss to the whole issue of statutory drafting. The reason I wanted to mention that is that when somebody of that calibre comes and makes submissions to a select committee it does make a real difference. I think it is worthwhile mentioning that our select committee process has enabled people of that calibre to come forward and to submit on legislation that might seem so dry but is actually quite fundamentally important to how accessible the law is going to be. 
I am not going to spend a lot of time on the bill because of course I was not on the Regulations Review Committee when it considered it but I want to just make the point that not only did it pick up on those two Law Commission reports but also it responded to recommendations made by a previous Regulations Review Committee on inquiries relating to incorporating material by reference. I was on the Regulations Review Committee when that particular report was undertaken so I am really pleased to see in the statute a provision that specifically deals with how material incorporated by reference is going to be dealt with in the future. For those who are not familiar with the work of the previous Regulations Review Committee an example of material incorporated by reference would be a standard that is made by a joint standards body—say Food Standards Australia New Zealand. If a joint standards body makes a standard that is then incorporated by reference into legislation you do not need to write in the entire standard and then amend it every time the standard is amended. In fact by making it publicly available it is automatically incorporated by reference with the use of appropriate clauses in the legislation and then with appropriate checks and balances so that people can access the material that is incorporated by reference. It is all about accessibility but also ensuring that our legislation can stay up to date with regulations without necessarily changing the law in order to meet an outside body’s standard-setting process. 
With those few comments in mind as others have said I too am very pleased to see that this bill is progressing. I would have very strongly objected to this legislation going into the Regulatory Standards Bill so I am glad my colleague Charles Chauvel was able to indicate to the Government that that would cause the bill to lose the bipartisan support that it now enjoys because it is kept separate from legislation that does not fit with this particular framework. I am very pleased to support its passage through the House.