Hide Rodney: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hide Rodney: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 30 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:10190. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Minister for Regulatory Reform) 
: 
 I move  
That the Companies Amendment Bill the Conservation Amendment Bill the Designs Amendment Bill the Fisheries Amendment Bill the Gas Amendment Bill the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Amendment Bill the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Amendment Bill the Reserves Amendment Bill and the Weights and Measures Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. Once again I thank the Hon Lianne Dalziel who I feel I have not acknowledged enough and has not been sufficiently acknowledged through this process.  
Until the Committee of the whole House stage these amendments were progressed through the Regulatory Improvement Bill an omnibus bill. The amendments to the following Acts were identified during the Quality Regulation Review which was undertaken by the previous Government in 2006 and 2007. Taken together these nine bills will improve the regulatory framework and reduce the compliance burden on business. I consider bills such as this a good use of the House’s time as considering small regulatory amendments through an omnibus bill is an efficient approach to removing minor legislative niggles. Again we have the Hon Lianne Dalziel to thank for that. 
These nine bills will result in the following changes. The changes to the Companies Act will reduce compliance costs and align the obligations for companies to appoint an auditor with the recent changes to the Financial Reporting Act. The amendments to the Conservation Act will reduce the costs and administrative burden on all parties involved in concessions and provisions ensuring an efficient and contestable process occurs as well as assisting a wide range of businesses operating on public conservation land. 
The changes to the Designs Act will also ensure greater efficiency as well as effectiveness by allowing for the restoration of lapsed design registrations and abandoned design applications in circumstances where the lapse occurred as a result of an unintended failure to pay the renewal fee or to make the necessary application. The amendment to the Fisheries Act provides a common-sense solution to deal with situations whereby commercial fishers have inadvertently incurred deemed-value debts. The chief executive of the Ministry of Fisheries can now consider requests from commercial fishers for catch balancing relief provided that set criteria are met. The amendment to the Gas Act clarifies the regulations and rules recommended under the Act including gas used as feedstock. This means all industry participants will be treated fairly. 
The amendments to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act ensure that the policy intent of the Act can be more efficiently and effectively achieved with the minimum necessary compliance costs. The amendments to this Act cover a range of different issues. They are to improve the functioning of the Environmental Risk Management Authority for example by enhancing the ability to delegate routine decision-making; to reduce barriers to innovation by getting the balance right between the benefits of public participation and the associated costs and benefits; to improve the operation of test certification for high-risk hazardous substances for example so that businesses can continue to operate with conditional test certificates while completing the full regulatory requirements; to bring increased clarity to hazardous substances and new organisms compliance and enforcement by improving alignment with other legislation; and to keep the hazardous substances and new organisms regulations and other instruments up to date by allowing amendments and updates to material incorporated by reference to take effect by notification to the  
Gazette 
 by the Minister or the authority. 
The amendment to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Restructuring) Act removes unnecessary duplication in the penalty regime applicable under the Act for non-payment of cost recovery levies. The provisions of the Fisheries Act 1996 alone are sufficient to ensure that statutory debts are paid. By amending the Reserves Act to enable 10-year licences to be granted for specified purposes over reserves that are vested in local administering bodies we are removing administrative complexity and additional costs surrounding the issuing of licences under the Act. 
Finally the Weights and Measures Act amendment removes regulatory confusion surrounding the supply of liquefied petroleum gas in gaseous form through pipes for industry consumers and regulators by removing it from the ambit of this Act. This means that in the future it will be regulated only under the Gas Act. The Government has asked all public sector agencies to take a systematic and ongoing approach to ensuring that the existing stock of regulation is free of regulatory duplications of gaps of administrative errors and of inconsistencies between pieces of legislation. Therefore as part of the Government’s commitment to an ongoing regulatory reform agenda I intend to regularly bring omnibus bills before the House to remove small regulatory issues that are burdening New Zealand businesses. 
Before finishing I would like to thank the House and the select committee for their work. Once again if I have not sufficiently acknowledged the Hon Lianne Dalziel I would like to do that again. She and I have worked together on improving Parliament’s approach to regulation and I have always had a good working relationship with her. I greatly admired the work she did in this area as Minister. I would also like to thank the officials across a wide number of departments who have worked on this project and for the advice they have given Parliament here today on these issues. I commend the bills to the House.