Chauvel Charles: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chauvel Charles: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 05 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 As the previous member on his feet Maurice Williamson indicated these Statutes Amendment bills have a special place in the Standing Orders of the House. They are an annual exercise. They are reserved for non-controversial and technical amendments for which there must be unanimity in the House before they can proceed. Standing Order 301(2) provides that if any member of the House objects to any clause in any one of these types of bills then the clause cannot proceed. That is why the Associate Minister of Justice Mr Borrows consults over each of these provisions in advance with all the political parties represented in the House to try to ascertain which proposals from Ministers for these types of technical and non-controversial amendments can go through on that basis. Typically what happens is that the relevant spokespeople will get a folder of those proposals from Mr Borrows’ office and be asked to consult with their spokespeople inside their parties as to whether the amendments truly are technical and non-controversial. 
 I think it is fair to say that the majority of proposals are approved but obviously if any member takes objection on the basis that there are policy considerations that ought to be more fully debated by the House then the proposal comes out. There are other ways that other Parliaments deal with these types of amendments. The Commonwealth Parliament of Australia has a Main Committee that has the powers of the House but which effectively sits separately from the House in order to deal with non-controversial legislation. I think that is an innovation that has been considered here but not yet adopted. It seems at least to date that we have been able to deal with these sorts of things through this procedure. 
I do just want to do something that I thought the Associate Minister of Justice might have done and that is briefly mention each of the pieces of legislation that are to be amended by this Statutes Amendment Bill (No 3). I think it is as well for there to be some record in  
Hansard 
 of what the House actually proposes to do today. There are 16 statutes that this bill would amend—first of all the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. Section 38 of that legislation which is the Act that implements our international obligations to ensure that in our banking and financial system there are safeguards around money laundering and the use of bank deposits and other financial instruments for the purposes of terrorism would be amended to make it clear that both the customer and his or her representative if any must have their identity verified to set up an unnamed account or other facility. The regulation-making power in the Act would be amended so that the ability to declare an entity or class of entities to be a designated business group for the purpose of the Act does not require specifying the composition of the business group. It is a good example of why this sort of thing can be dealt with in this type of legislation. It is entirely non-controversial and sensible and giving better effect to the legislation itself given some 3 years of experience with the legislation working in practice. 
The next Act that the bill would amend is the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989. There is a protective provision proposed to be inserted where custody orders that are currently made under that Act expire automatically when a child reaches the age of 17. This provision would extend that out to the age of 18 by way of an automatic expiry. So there is a protection effectively conferred for those who are aged 17 and subject to such an order. Again that was clearly seen as something non-controversial and sensible by way of better making that legislation work. It is interesting to note that the Government Administration Committee clarified when it dealt with the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 3) that such orders would expire at the age of 18 unless they are specified to expire earlier. So there was that clarification by the committee and I believe that is going to be approved by the House. 
The next piece of legislation to be amended is the Dumping and Countervailing Duties Act 1988. There is a provision for the refund of excess anti-dumping duty paid. That is obviously a sensible provision. If somebody is subject to a penalty under the anti-dumping legislation which again is legislation that implements our international obligations in the trade context then there obviously ought to be a power to refund an improperly levied duty. 
Then the Electricity Industry Act 2010 will be clarified to make it clear that it is on the recommendation of the Minister of Consumer Affairs that the Governor-General makes regulations under section 111 of the Act. That relates to who can be exempted by way of class from the dispute resolution system that is set up by that Act. It was not clear in the original legislation which particular Minister whether it was the Minister of Energy and Resources or somebody else ought to be advising the Governor-General about regulations creating exemptions. 
 Then the Gas Act 1992 would be amended so that the definitions of “distribution system” and “gas distributor” would be changed so as to take account of bypass distribution networks so that a person that is not only a distributor but also a retailer that provides line function services to itself effectively by that dual role that they play in the industry and then sells those services as part of a bundled service supplied to a consumer is actually brought within the definition of a “gas distributor”. Again a sensible and technical amendment. 
The bill also provides for the enforcement of the dispute resolution scheme to continue. Even if a person formerly subject to the scheme leaves it they none the less can be subject to the dispute resolution scheme. 
The Heavy Engineering Research Levy Act 1978 will be amended to increase the maximum prescribed rates of research levy from $5 to $20 per tonne of goods and from 5c per kilogram to 10c per kilogram of goods. That is a very sensible amendment and it will have the effect of increasing funding for research and development which is something that certainly members on this side of the House would like to see. 
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006—at the moment there is only one Deputy Legal Complaints Review Officer in the complaints mechanism scheme that is set up by that Act. This amendment would allow for a second Deputy Legal Complaints Review Officer to be appointed. Obviously that will assist to speed up the resolution of complaints under the scheme by allowing the burden and workload to be shared. Again an amendment to be supported. 
Then there are some local government amendments—one two three four in total. They in turn amend list tax areas for groups of territorial authorities to clarify that the Auckland Council is the distribution authority for its area. In relation to Christchurch they are removing the antiquated reference to the Banks Peninsula district local authority which no longer exists. There are some consequential amendments overlooked in other legislation and then there is some legislation relating to the Auckland Council specifically. It provides that the Auckland Council cannot dispose of certain property before the close of 30 July 2012 with a current rating valuation of a quarter of a million dollars or more. The current rating valuation is replaced with the term “current market value”. 
The Real Estate Agents Act will be amended so that those licensees who have had their licences cancelled voluntarily in the 5 years preceding the time of the application are not prohibited from being re-licensed. The Residential Tenancies Act would be amended to basically provide that every registrar and deputy registrar of the District Court is also a registrar of the tribunal and there are some consequential amendments relating to that provision. The Social Security Act 1964 will have the definition of “work-test married rate” amended. Finally the amendment to the Veterinarians Act 2005 will extend the expiry date of existing practising certificates for applicants for new practising certificates until the application for the new certificate is determined. They are sensible amendments and we have the Government’s Supplementary Order Papers one dividing the bill and the other amending the Geographic Board legislation which we have heard much about the NgatiPorou Claims Settlement Act which is outdated now because of other legislation that has passed and ditto the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Act 2008. For the reasons I have outlined which are that these are technical sensible amendments they will have the support of the Labour Opposition.