Dean Jacqui: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
Dean Jacqui: Standards and Conformance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5461] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I have been going through the standards update. I do not know how up to date it is but I have been going through the local government component of it because local government is a subject dear to my heart. 
My colleague Sandra Goudie very ably raised concerns about the by-laws and the standards for the water supply standard. I just want to reconfirm what my colleague Sandra Goudie has been saying about water quality standards and to perhaps give members a bit of a picture of the impact that those standards have had on rural communities throughout New Zealand. They have had an impact on all communities obviously but in my experience the impact has been felt in rural and provincial communities. I can tell members that the drinking water standards have added an awful lot of cost to the people in local government particularly where I come from where there are a lot of people but not many people to pay for these new standards. We really need to keep that in mind when we are passing legislation. 
I will now talk to the title of the bill. One thing that worries me about this bill is that we seem to have a daily diet of rhetoric from the Government on reducing compliance costs. I find it ironic that Minister Dalziel touts herself as being business-friendly because in the general debate today it appeared that big business had become the enemy. I am not sure why big business should be anybody’s enemy especially given that big business is a large employer it seems to make a great contribution to our GDP and it also pays an awful lot of tax. If somebody could tell me what is so wrong about big business I would be very interested to hear. 
I come back to the Minister’s comments on reducing compliance costs and I turn now to the business compliance costs statement which appears on page 10 of the Standards and Conformance Bill. Here is the issue I wonder about. The business compliance costs statement covers the effect the bill will have on businesses. It will affect businesses run by a couple of people businesses involved in manufacturing or perhaps a large company. 
The business compliance costs statement—and I will read from the explanatory note of the bill because I think it is very interesting—states: “One-off compliance costs arise as the 2 bodies that are affected by the proposal will be required to shift their accreditation from IANZ to JAS-ANZ and they will need to understand the requirements imposed by JAS-ANZ in order to obtain accreditation by that organisation.” Those requirements seem to be imposing an awful lot of work on some of the small businesses that I represent. I read further: “This will require staff of the affected organisations” or businesses and people in offices who are otherwise trying to earn a living—and I know that the Minister is enjoying my speech so I will continue—“spending time with JAS-ANZ accreditation staff so that the latter can have confidence that the 2 organisations are issuing certificates to their clients in accordance with IAF procedures.” This is riveting stuff and it is also costly. “The size of these compliance costs will depend on the confidence JAS-ANZ has in the previous accreditations undertaken by IANZ.” 
I ask the Minister whether we will hold seminars for people so that they understand how to do this. But she should not worry about it because the statement then goes on to state: “These compliance costs will be mitigated by the Ministry of Economic Development …”. Well that is good; I feel better! And I am sure our businesses will feel better too! Our little businesses trying to make a dollar in Central Otago and Cromwell which is a wonderful hub—[ 
Interruption 
] No in the middle of the picking season for stone fruit. Those businesses have all the time in the world! All the staff necessary will sit down with this business compliance costs statement and it will not cost them a thing and will take no time at all! They are not to worry about it because the compliance costs will be mitigated by the Ministry of Economic Development!