Tremain Chris: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
Tremain Chris: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5398] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Standards and Conformance Bill and to bring to the Minister’s attention for starters—I am sure she is well aware of the Ministry of Economic Development’s website—the Government’s objectives for conformance and standards. I will not ask her to recite them off pat because that would be unfair of course but I will remind her of what those objectives are. I will read through them. First and foremost is facilitating domestic and international trade. Second is minimising risks to health safety and the environment. The third is facilitating innovation and economic development as part of the economic transformation equation that our Prime Minister is banging the table about at the moment while we are still going backwards on economic growth. The fourth is reducing compliance costs. That is what it says there; it is all about reducing compliance costs. 
So I imagine that is why the Minister is planning a trip in February of 2007 to the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility which will take place in February 2007 in Sydney Australia. I ask the Minister whether she will be attending that conference. I do not think she is sure about that. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: She doesn’t know. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: She does not know. Well I would like her to find out a little bit more—being the Minister of Commerce responsible for commerce and standards and for introducing a new standard that is all about minimising environmental risks and promoting social responsibility into the Standards Act 1988. Yet the Minister does not even know about a conference that will be taking place in Sydney in February 2007 on the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility. Now we might ask ourselves why the heck might we have a conference on that. Well I have to say that I would not be wasting my time in attending it myself. But it is the very reason this whole change in the Act is coming about and the Minister is not even aware of it. 
I want to talk to her about why it is coming through because there is a hierarchy of standards that come about throughout the world. Firstly there are international standards then standards set on an Australasian level. Then regional and local standards are set—all done under the Standards Act of 1988. Just for the Minister’s reference—this evening is probably a bit of an education for her—I tell her that the Standards Act was originally put in to consolidate and amend the law relating to standards and to repeal the original Standards Act of 1965. 
A body was set up called the Standards Council I say for the Minister’s benefit and there are 12 members on the council. She may not be aware either that the membership of that council is made up of bodies as august as the New Zealand Institute of Architects Inc. Was she aware of that? It includes the National Council of Women—it is there to help set standards and be part of it—and other august bodies like Local Government New Zealand. So that standards organisation is there to set standards for New Zealand and now we are seeing this amending legislation being brought in to add to the functions of the council. The primary functions of the council should be to develop standards and to promote encourage and facilitate the use of standards in New Zealand. Let us go back to the Ministry of Economic Development website and I ask what those objectives were—to facilitate innovation in economic development and to reduce compliance costs. 
I want to know how the heck minimising of environmental risk and promoting social responsibility will have any impact whatsoever on increasing economic transformation for this country. That is the question the Minister should be asking because creating growth should be what it is all about. I will tell members why we have this—this whole thing comes from a conference that will end up in Sydney next year dealing with the international standard ISO 26000 on social responsibility. 
Let me tell the Minister a little about ISO 26000 which is the international standard that has been set on a worldwide basis for social responsibility. The interesting thing about that standard is that it will not include requirements and thus will be a certification standard. So it will be optional. We are going through this whole process of amending legislation to make two changes to the Standards Act—for the minimisation of environmental risk and the promotion of social responsibility—all for ISO 26000 which will be optional. That is unbelievable. How will it enhance economic transformation in this country?