Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:668;Page:14857] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 My challenge for the deputy leader of the Labour Party is to explain how petty regulations passed by her Government would help child poverty. How would banning products like Cuddly somehow help the children of New Zealand? The real issues facing our country are how we make living more affordable for families and how we secure jobs for New Zealand. I say to members opposite that one of the positive things we can do is to repeal some of the stupid regulations that were passed by the previous Labour Government. I knew that Labour had passed laws to ban types of light bulbs. I knew it had passed regulations to tell New Zealanders what size showerheads they were allowed to use. I knew it had passed laws that said people could not do DIY work on their own houses. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that products like Surf Persil and Mr Muscle—to mention Rodney Hide; or Toilet Duck to represent Mr Mallard; or Cuddly to represent Parekura Horomia—would be banned. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Labour would be so stupid as to ban those sorts of products. 
Members are chuckling. Let me just remind them of the real impact of those sorts of stupid policies. I am advised that that regulation would add $20 million a year—$20 million a year—to household grocery bills. How dare members opposite get up in this House and shed crocodile tears about the cost of living when they passed such silly regulations. It is even more serious than that. You see the sort of regulation that would add those sorts of costs would put hundreds of New Zealanders out of work. No other country in the world has those regulations. How is the Unilever plant in Lower Hutt which produces products like Surf and Persil able to be internationally competitive with the sorts of stupid regulations that members opposite put into our law books? I ask Trevor Mallard who is defending those rules why he cares so little about those 330 jobs. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Drink it Smith. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I think that interjection states the difference between members of the Government and members of the Opposition. They somehow believe in their nanny State minds that we have to regulate absolutely every element of life to protect children. I have checked with the poison centre and I have checked with Safekids the advocacy group— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Drink it now. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The pathetic interjection from Mr Mallard is for me to drink it. Is he saying that every single product on the supermarket shelves that might cause people harm has to have some special child-resistant packaging? That is what he is saying and that is what he put in the law books. 
I say that common-sense New Zealanders know that that is a nonsense. They know that they do not do it in Australia. They know that they do not do it in the US. They know that they do not do it in the European Union. It is a classic example of the petty nanny State regulations that drive New Zealanders mad. Nor does it make any environmental sense at all as 30 million extra plastic bottles would go into the system each year—30 million extra plastic bottles—if we followed the regulations that Mr Mallard sat over. It is the issue that separates the common sense on this side of the House with the nanny State regulators who would push up the costs and who would put New Zealanders out of work while they run this country mad with red tape. Thankfully this Government has the common sense to deregulate that sort of nonsense and apply a little common sense to the business of Government.