Boscawen John: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Boscawen John: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:10179. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JOHN BOSCAWEN (ACT) 
: 
 We are debating the Regulatory Improvement Bill which makes a number of amendments to a number of Acts. Stuart Nash outlined the Acts earlier this morning and they include the Companies Act the Conservation Act the Fisheries Act the Gas Act and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. I will focus my comments on two particular Acts: the Designs Act 1953 and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Act 1995. 
In relation to the Designs Act we note in the commentary on this bill that its provisions have been drafted to come into effect on the day after the bill is given the Royal assent with the exception of most of the provisions that are changes to the Designs Act. When the bill first came into the House there was a provision for the changes to the Designs Act to become effective on a date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council or the date when the Governor-General gave the Royal assent but there was no fixed time for that. That time provision could have dragged on for a number of years. In fact we heard a member of the Labour Opposition mention this morning a particular instance whereby it took some 8 years for some regulations to come into force. 
The Commerce Committee of which I am a member—I have to say that I did not play a large part in this bill’s deliberation; nevertheless I am a member of that committee—was concerned to ensure that there was some certainty. An amendment was put forward and Labour members have spoken at length on that this morning. There was a provision that notwithstanding the balance of the bill for which all of the other changes were to come in immediately the changes to the Designs Act were to come into effect on the earlier of two dates: the Governor-General giving an Order in Council or the date of a year after the bill receives Royal assent. The reason for making that change was to provide certainty. In the commentary the select committee said that members of the public need to have certainty and there should be only very rare and exceptional circumstances when we do not provide that certainty or when it is justifiable not to have some certainty and not to set a date for provisions to come into effect. 
That set my mind thinking as to when else we would have those rare and exceptional circumstances. I went back to the passing of the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill last November. We were told in this House that that bill would be based on the Australian scheme that the officials could make all the regulations they wanted and that they would have more than sufficient time because all they had to do was copy the Australian regulations. Well I realise I should keep the debate to the particular issue of the Designs Act but the point I am making is that that Act deals with copyright and designs. Therefore it was considered that a year should be more than sufficient time to make those regulations. It is not surprising that a year was thought sufficient because the regulations that were to flow from the emissions trading scheme legislation all had to be made in 6 months. That should not have been a problem because we were copying the Australian legislation. The only problem was that there was no Australian legislation—no Australian legislation at all—so now we are going where no country has gone before. 
That leads me to my next point concerning the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Act 1995. This Regulatory Improvement Bill makes some amendments to that Act. The primary purpose of those amendments is to remove the penalty regimes applicable under the Act for non-payment of cost recovery levies as they are already provided for in the Fisheries Act 1996. We are making amendments here to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Act 1995 to ensure there is not a duplication of penalties.