Smith Lockwood: Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6960] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (NZ National—Rodney) 
: Part 2 of the Imports and Exports (Restrictions) Amendment Bill is the part that has the action in it. Clause 9 in particular empowers the Government by Order in Council to set regulations and prohibitions on exports. It is quite informative to go back to the Act we are amending—the old Import Control Act of 1988. I have it right here. That Act does not have anything to do with hazardous substances. It has nothing to do with the conventions we are talking about today. The old Import Control Act empowers the Government to control imports to prohibit the import of goods of any specified class or classes—and it goes on. That is why we are so concerned about the width of the powers that this amendment to the Act gives the Government under clause 9. If we look at clause 9 we see that it is a very broad power. 
Under new section 3A “Prohibition of exports” inserted by clause 9 it is stated: “(1) The Governor-General if satisfied that it is necessary to give effect to an international obligation may by Order in Council prohibit the exportation from New Zealand …”. I have proposed an amendment to that clause to tie it in more tightly to the international obligations spelt out in section 2(1) of the principal Act. I know that some could say that that is not totally necessary but it makes it far clearer. If there were no confusion about this matter why was the select committee concerned about it? The select committee noted that the powers being given to the Government in that provision enabled it to exceed what was required by those conventions. The select committee was concerned about that and that is why the committee questioned the Government on it. I am not sure though that we should be satisfied with the answer which is “that the Government has no intention to exceed the requirements … listed in clause 6 of the bill”. 
Let me summarise my concerns. The Act we amend the Import Control Act is very broad powerful legislation that enables the Government to ban any imports. We are amending that very wide empowering legislation with this amendment bill which although it will not give quite such broad powers with regard to restricting exports will still give very broad powers. There are two possibilities the Government could choose to overcome these concerns. One is my proposed amendment to clause 9 which would limit the powers the Government is being given under clause 9 to set regulations very tightly back to the international obligations in clause 6. Another possibility which I think my good colleague Judith Collins will be proposing is to delete new paragraph (e) inserted by clause 6(1) because that provision again gives the Government far broader power. I will not say too much about that because I want Judith Collins to be able to describe her proposed amendment but I think the fact that we are both putting up amendments to try to limit the breadth of the power that clause 9 is giving the Government shows the extent of concern about that. 
I tell the Committee that it was something the select committee was concerned about. Members will notice that its report on the bill does not say: “The minority on the select committee were concerned about it.” It was a general select committee concern. In fact my notes on the day record that we talked about it. I noted that we had quite a lot of debate at the select committee over this issue of whether the legislation intended to provide for prohibition of exports beyond that required by those conventions. At the select committee that day Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials told us that that would risk constraining trade. They did not say it could not be done but my notes here record that they reminded us that it would risk constraining trade. What happens if we get a Government that is even more left wing than this one and does not care about trade? This legislation would enable such a Government to constrain trade. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials went on to say that the legislation might risk breaching our trade obligations but those trade obligations are not the tightest given where international agreements have got to. 
So there is a genuine concern and I commend the Government to consider the two amendments to Part 2 that the National Party is putting forward.