Chauvel Charles: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chauvel Charles: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:10189. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 I will take a short call on the Regulatory Improvement Bill to finish the matters that I started dealing with earlier. I will do this for the benefit of the Minister in the chair Rodney Hide who had Mr Mapp substituting for him at that point. There was the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms issue and the issue of the commencement of the legislation which was by Order in Council originally. Then there was the matter of incorporation by reference in respect of Part 6. The Minister has not been able to be here for the entire debate so I will tell him that in respect of the commencement issue there has been a satisfactory resolution. There was a provision that stated that the legislation would come into force on the earlier of either 12 months after its receipt of the Royal assent or on the proclamation of the legislation by Order in Council. That concern of the Regulations Review Committee has been resolved satisfactory. 
In relation to the issue of section 42C(3) to be inserted by clause 28 the Minister has said that one procedure deals with genetically modified organisms and the other deals with non-genetically modified organisms; therefore that is the reason for the difference. I appreciate the fact that the Minister has given that explanation but I think it would have been helpful if the legislation on its face had reflected that more explicitly. However I will not take the issue further. 
The final point I will raise is the issue raised by Part 6 which comprises the amendments to the hazardous substances legislation in respect of incorporation by reference. This is the last of the three matters that the Regulations Review Committee raised with the Commerce Committee in a very eloquent letter from Mr Macindoe dated 1 September. He will appreciate that I am taking up the cudgels on behalf of the committee in this regard. The issue is very simple: with these hazardous substances and new organisms standards the legislation allows for international sets of documents agreed to by supranational organisations like the European Union to be incorporated basically wholesale into New Zealand law. An obvious issue arises; how do ordinary New Zealanders know what the law is on any particular occasion if a regulation says for example that standard 6.8 of the Council of Europe on x y or z is now the law of the land in New Zealand? On that issue the committee clearly made some extensive amendments to the legislation which may well be satisfactory in terms of requiring that the chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment make available any gazetted material that is incorporated by reference by way of a hazardous substances and new organisms standard. It seems that on advice the committee has gone through and taken pains to deal with that issue in new sections 141B to 141I to be inserted by clause 46A. 
My question for the Minister in the chair is whether he thinks that the provisions are adequate given the high standards he thinks that the legislation should comply with. The specific provisions I am referring to for the Minister’s benefit are firstly new section 141D(3): “Material that ceases to have effect does not cease to have legal effect as part of a notice of transfer in which the material is incorporated by reference.” I have to say that that is a very odd provision. New section 141F(5) states: “A failure to comply with this section does not invalidate regulations that incorporate material by reference or a group standard or code of practice that incorporates material by reference.” There are similar provisions in new sections 141G(6) 141H(4) and 141I(2). In essence these provisions say that it does not matter if all those notices and information requirements are not complied with; the legislation or the incorporation by reference remains valid. I want to hear from the Minister if he is willing to take a call on the issue whether that is good enough. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 118 in the name of the Hon Rodney Hide to clause 13 be agreed to. 
Amendment agreed to.