Williams PotoREGULATORY SYSTEMS (TRANSPORT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector) on behalf of the Minister of Transport: I move That the Regulatory Systems (Transport) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Transport and Infrastructure Committee to consider the bill.Keeping New Zealanders safe while they travel is a priority. Making sure that we have a strong regulatory system is part of that. The objective of this bill is to reduce the chance of regulatory failure and maintain the integrity of the transport regulatory system. This involves robust development of quality regulation that reflects considered choices about the right type of transport rules or regulations the appropriate regulatory tools to use and who is best placed to operate them. It is also about adopting a whole of system view of regulation. It requires a proactive collaborative approach to the monitoring and care of regulatory systems. This means constantly ensuring that the transport regulatory system is fit for purpose.This bill makes sure regulatory changes can be made in a timely and cost-effective way to deliver benefits to the transport system as well as making some common-sense changes. These include: addressing transport regulatory duplications gaps errors and inconsistencies in transport legislation; ensuring transport regulators have the tools they need to keep the transport regulatory system up to date and relevant; removing unnecessary compliance costs from the transport system; and amending the board sizes of transport Crown entities.This bill proposes an amendment to enable the Minister of Transport to create transport instruments. Transport instruments will specify how to comply with a rule or regulation. For example a transport rule may describe the need to carry certain safety equipment on a vessel. The instrument could then set out the specific information and certain standards that should be followed to meet those requirements. An example of this is traffic control signs. This is a highly prescriptive rule with the exact dimensions colours the images and wordings of signs. The rule is updated frequently when slight changes are needed for signs in different circumstances. This currently requires a full rule change process when the change could be as simple as allowing two signs to be used at the same time on the same pole or adding a new type of bird to a group of signs that instruct road users to watch out or slow for animals—for example Slow for bittern". These examples would be better set in a transport instrument.This will provide a more efficient way to update detailed technical or frequently changing information in the transport system. The Minister of Transport would permit the creation and management of a transport instrument. The instrument is allocated to a specified individual such as the relevant transport regulator in the rule or regulation. The specified individual must be satisfied that relevant people and organisations are consulted for any proposed transport instrument. In the last land transport omnibus rule changes 89 percent of those changes could have been made through various transport instruments if they had already been in place. This change leads to cumulative benefits to the transport agencies and the economy. Transport users will also benefit from having particular legislation more up to date responsive and efficient.The Land Transport Act the Maritime Transport Act and the Maritime Security Act currently allow the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the director of Maritime New Zealand to exempt a person or thing from specified requirements and rules. For example the NZTA could shift an exemption to a restricted driver's licence holder who works an evening shift and would otherwise be breaching the 10 p.m. curfew that is set out in the driver-licensing rule. This is so the driver can drive home from work after their shift. This is an individual exemption in that it only applies to the named person or people. NZTA has issued hundreds of these exemptions.Through engagements with transport regulators the Ministry of Transport has realised that these exemption powers lack some necessary features and do not reflect modern best practice. In particular the current provisions do not give regulators clear powers to grant class exemptions where a category or thing or person is defined. Changes in the bill specifically provide for class exemptions and will make sure that these are treated in the same way as secondary legislation—since they are effectively changing a rule for a group or category.Changes in the bill provide powers to revoke set time limits add amendments and for NZTA to make exemptions from regulations—all of which are currently difficult or not allowed.The current legislation does not give the transport Crown agency boards flexibility in the number of members like other boards have. NZTA must have six to eight and Maritime New Zealand and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) both must have five members. It's not good practice to have an even number of members for voting purposes but the workload and scope of the NZTA board responsibilities has meant that the default is to have eight members. In the case of the civil aviation and maritime boards the requirement that there be exactly five members makes for overly complex appointment processes and succession planning. The small number of members has also meant that the workload of members is too high particularly when facing governance challenges. Recent resignations from the CAA board have cited workload as a key issue. This bill proposes that the number of members of the NZTA board be amended to at least seven but no more than nine members and that the number of members of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Maritime New Zealand boards be amended to at least five but no more than seven members.This bill also includes three other matters that reflect regulatory stewardship obligations. These are: updating maximum fines outlined in the Maritime Transport Act and the Maritime Security Act for consistency to match those in the Land Transport Act and the Civil Aviation Act. Endangering lives should have the same penalties on land in the air or at sea. Increasing the time period that a vehicle can be impounded by an enforcement officer for the purpose of collecting evidence after an accident or incident—in many cases the current seven-day period is inadequate or puts unreasonably tight time constraints on inspectors to properly examine and return the vehicle. This will save police time and money with investigators no longer having to work through the weekend.Amending the Maritime Transport Act to explicitly include the Chatham Islands Council in the definition of regional council to enable the council to appoint a harbour master and enforce navigation by-laws. In a previous legislative change done under the last Government in 2013 the Chatham Islands Council was unintentionally removed as a regional council.This bill will help ensure that the transport regulatory system remains up to date and fit for purpose which will speed up changes and most importantly will help keep New Zealanders safe. I commend the Regulatory Systems (Transport) Amendment Bill to the House."