Cullen Michael: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cullen Michael: 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.] 
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.