Stewart Barbara: Standards and Conformance Bill — Second Reading 
Stewart Barbara: Standards and Conformance Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:633;Page:5169] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I rise to support the second reading of the Standards and Conformance Bill. I must say that it is a real pleasure to follow a member like Brian Connell. He is erudite and intelligent—but in this case he is totally wrong. 
It is very important in today’s world to be aware of the necessity to have complete confidence in all of the products we purchase particularly those we export. One way to do that is to ensure we have product conformity—products aligned to an internationally recognised standard. It is only by a product having conformance to an internationally recognised standard that we can be assured of the product’s consistency. Of course all of our overseas customers increasingly want this so it is important to ensure that confidence is also maintained in the standards and conformance infrastructure. We need to have one standard if we are going to have a standard at all. 
It is really pleasing to see that the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand will continue to have the role of registering certification bodies here in New Zealand. We need to set standards that cannot afford to be compromised. Prior to coming to Parliament I was closely involved in ensuring that international standard ISO 9002 standards were maintained in my workplace—those standards were administered in those days by Telarc—so I am very aware of the importance of compliance in one’s work. Any business that wants international accreditation for its products is very aware of the compliance costs for that. I must say that these costs are very often a part of doing business overseas and locally and they are costs that one must know totally all about before entering into the compliance area. 
As the Minister explained the bill aligns the functions of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council and the Standards Council with international standards in conformance norms and practices. Because of the importance of our standards and conformance infrastructure to New Zealand’s trade health safety and environmental objectives it is absolutely essential that we get the process right. As these international norms and practices have evolved over time our legal framework has basically not kept pace. This bill brings us up to speed. 
In particular international practice requires that only one body in any country has the function of registering certification bodies. In essence we have ended up with two—the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand which is a joint trans-Tasman body with genuine international standards being a member of the International Accreditation Forum and the Testing Laboratory Registration Council which still has this function as a result of the 1972 legislation. This bill removes the function of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council for registering certification bodies. It gives that body the function of registering various types of conformity assessment bodies except for certification. 
The Commerce Committee I read received seven submissions and heard only three submitters. Issues raised included compliance costs appointments to the Standards Council clarity of accreditation certificate roles and transitional provisions. New Zealand First notes that the report states that the committee is satisfied the bill addresses these issues and the committee has not recommended any amendments. 
One issue is of concern to New Zealand First and that is the point expressed in National’s minority report. New Zealand First has always resisted provisions and objectives to promote social responsibility. We are very aware that this type of provision is difficult if not totally impossible to implement and then to audit against—hence our policy and our legislation around the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. So New Zealand First will be scrutinising the provisions to increase the Standards Council’s objectives to promote sound responsibility. We support the bill and look forward to seeing it go through its various stages.