Salesa JennyLEGISLATION BILLLEGISLATION (REPEALS AND AMENDMENTS) BILLThird ReadingsHon JENNY SALESA (Minister for Building and Construction) on behalf of the Attorney-General: I move That the Legislation Bill and the Legislation (Repeals and Amendments) Bill be now read a third time. May I on behalf of the Hon David Parker because this seems like a somewhat dry and technical measure explain first of all why this bill is important. Later I would like to acknowledge the people and organisations that have had a hand in bringing it to this point. Parliament is New Zealand's supreme lawmaker. However because of the complexity of modern society and the demands on parliamentary time a lot more technical and detailed legislation must be delegated to the executive or specialised bodies inside and outside Government. This creates a risk that the ability of democratically elected and accountable members of Parliament to control the content of the law be sacrificed to administrative expediency. That risk has grown significantly since the 20th century and it is mitigated by a number of measures such as enacting empowering clauses that state the specific purposes for which regulations can be made the establishment of the regulatory review committee with its mandate to scrutinise delegated legislation and the development of a disallowance procedure to enable regulations to be amended or revoked by resolution of the House. The Legislation Bill builds on and significantly extends these safeguards. It tackles one of the key outstanding problems of New Zealand's legislative framework which concerns a question as basic as: what is New Zealand's legislation? The situation with respect to traditional regulations now called legislative instruments is tolerably clear. They are mainly made by the Governor-General in Council are drafted by the Parliamentary Counsel Office and are published on New Zealand's legislation website. However over time Parliament has delegated lawmaking power to scores of other persons or bodies. These instruments which have been called deemed regulations or tertiary legislation—now perhaps best identified in the catchy terminology of the Regulations Review Committee as DINLIs: disallowable instruments that are not legislative instruments—are drafted by over 100 agencies of Government and published in accordance with requirements prescribed separately in hundreds of provisions across the statute book. What is more they are often not explicitly stated to be legislation but include a catch-all category of instruments with significant legislative effect. This makes them hard to distinguish from the thousands of other administrative instruments generated by Government each year. As a consequence there is a large and probably growing category of law that is made under Parliament's authority that isn't necessarily visible to Parliament. The definition of secondary legislation in clause 5 of the bill sweeps away the existing confusion of definitions of legislative instruments and disallowable instruments and replaces them with a simple single definition of secondary legislation which clause 5 covers. The thrust of it is that an instrument that is secondary legislation if it is called secondary legislation by an Act while seemingly circular has the merit of requiring an express statement in each case where Parliament has delegated power to make law. In the near future the Government will introduce a large bill of amendments—the secondary legislation bill—to add those amendments to all Acts that delegate lawmaking powers. It is likely to be about three hundred pages. When the House considers the secondary legislation bill it will have the opportunity to delineate for the first time where it has conferred a power to make law and the requirements as to the publication and oversight of the instruments in question will be determined by the bill before us. The reforms to the framework for secondary legislation in this bill will deliver three broad benefits—first establishing for the first time a clear category of instruments that are secondary legislation and removing the confusion. Second stating explicitly in law for the first time the category of instruments over which the House has oversight through the disallowance process. And third laying the foundation for gradually improving access to the whole body of secondary legislation. The bill of course does a number of other useful things. It re-enacts the Interpretation Act 1999 and the Legislation Act of 2012 with a number of technical improvements. By bringing these two Acts together it implements the last outstanding recommendation of the Law Commission's 2008 report on the Presentation of New Zealand Statute Law. Disclosure requirements are enacted in Part 4; they support more informed parliamentary and public scrutiny of that legislation by ensuring that key information about Government-initiated legislation is provided. This will ensure the quality of legislation and also contribute to delivering on this Government's commitment to open Government. At an administrative level disclosure statements have been required for bills since 2013. Making this a legislative requirement represents a stronger and more enduring commitment to disclosure and gives assurance to the House of Representatives that we will continue to be consulted about proposed changes to the form and content of the disclosures that are required. The new requirements may also be extended to some secondary legislation specified by a ministerial notice that is approved by the House. Finally I'd like to acknowledge the people who were instrumental in bringing these bills to fruition. The legislation was introduced by the Hon Chris Finlayson in the last Government. I know that he was really passionate about this legislation and I acknowledge him for his work in the previous Government. It resulted from an inquiry to the Regulations Review Committee in 2014. That committee has provided its advice on many occasions throughout the development of these bills and the secondary legislation bill which Cabinet has considered. I thank the various chairs deputy chairs and the members of the committee for their input. As I mentioned earlier the Law Commission recommended that the Interpretation Act and the Legislation Act be brought together. The Justice Committee considered the bill and made very helpful recommendations particularly about the transition to centralised publication of secondary legislation. I also want to thank the Law Society Local Government New Zealand and members of the public who made submissions on this bill to the Justice Committee. And I'd like of course to thank the Hon David Parker. I commend the Legislation Bill and the Legislation (Repeals and Amendments) Bill to the House. Thank you Mr Speaker.