Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Madam Speaker. I know that the senior Government whip is a very lovely man and after listening to that speech I just want to assure him that despite his generosity he has absolutely no need whatsoever to think about getting me a Christmas present because listening to what he has in mind for some of his family I can probably do without. Yuletide felicitations have broken out all across the precinct; so I want to wish all members the compliments of the festive season which I guess is a pretty archaic and pompous way of saying merry Christmas to you all. I hope that everybody will have a well-earned break because actually the vast majority of members of Parliament irrespective of our political differences are caring and likeable people and it's nice occasionally to be reminded of that fact.Hon James Shaw: Especially you Tim.Hon TIM MACINDOE: Mr Shaw that is a very kind comment thank you. I'm responding to it so that it gets put on the Hansard record.I want to acknowledge the Attorney-General who has introduced this bill. I give him credit for picking up another very good piece of the National Party's legislation. I will point out that this has languished on the Order Paper now for two years; so we're in the first reading more than two years after his Government took office. I was pleased that he gave credit to his predecessor the honourable—I want to acknowledge him for giving credit to his predecessor the Hon Christopher Finlayson who of course had a considerable input into this bill but also the others who he's mentioned.I am taking this call in my capacity as the shadow Attorney-General but I have to say I'm absolutely delighted to hear that the bill is not coming to the Justice Committee but is instead going to the Regulations Review Committee which I know will be ably chaired by my very good friend and colleague the member for Wairarapa. I wish him and all his colleagues all the joy that their consideration of this weighty tome could possibly give them.Now I wouldn't want to be chastised for reading any of my speech but I have to say that I would struggle to make a detailed analysis of this particular measure without occasionally looking down on a few notes. It is as others have noted a bill of 307 pages; so perhaps I could just open it at any page and read some of it to you. Although looking at that that would be rather difficult. I might find myself resorting to a speech of the same level of excitement that we had from the Attorney-General who should probably know that if he's ever invited to deliver a speech an after-dinner speech at one of those riotously entertaining law students' gatherings that they sometimes have that probably wouldn't be the speech to deliver on that occasion. But I am looking forward however to seeing him in the chair during the committee stage of the consideration of the bill because I think we can have a bit of fun at that point. I'm sure that he'll look forward to the questions that will come from it.I did try to listen intently to the Attorney-General's speech but I did find that increasingly difficult as we went through. I'm not sure that I share his enthusiasm for reading the Regulations Review Committee's report after their consideration of the bill; but if they have to do all this work on it I suppose that's the very least we can do. I can only hope that their analysis might be slightly more enlightening and uplifting than his was.It is nevertheless an important development in our legislation. Earlier in the year as the Attorney-General and others have noted the House passed the Legislation Bill to make it easier to find and access secondary legislation by requiring it to be published on the New Zealand Legislation website alongside Acts of Parliament. I daresay for most members of the public who might be listening although at this stage I imagine there'll be very few of them they could well have assumed that that had always been the case.Greg O'Connor: There'll be less now.Hon TIM MACINDOE: Yes Mr O'Connor; even though the correct term would have been fewer" you are on this occasion correct in that. I'm pleased also to have been able to put that into the record. I have completely lost the thread of my sentence but I doubt whether that's an issue at all for anybody.This is a bill that responds to detailed work as has been outlined by the Regulations Review Committee back in 2014. It reflects work of the Productivity Commission the current Attorney-General and his officials and their predecessors. So I want to acknowledge all of that and just focus on two quick points because I'm going to be in trouble with the whip who told me to keep this fairly short. In the report the committee—Dan Bidois: Keep going.Hon TIM MACINDOE: I could possibly see—there's a sort of dissension in the ranks back here and this is causing me a little bit of grief because I believe that this will probably be my last speech in the House for the year. I would have hoped that it might have been heard with a little bit more respect and gravitas but I am very very pleased that the co-leader of the Green Party is showing me all the respect that I don't deserve and I thank him very much for that. Where was I?Simeon Brown: I don't know.Hon TIM MACINDOE: No nor do I. The report highlighted the difficulties faced in identifying which instruments are disallowable. That will be an issue that the Regulations Review Committee in all seriousness will need to look at and which the bill is quite rightly addressing because it's all about making our law more accessible more easily understood and therefore opening up the law to—I don't know whether you can use the word "layman" nowadays but—the average man or woman on the street rather than it being the preserve of lawyers in stuffy cloisters. That is a good thing.The new Legislation Act establishes a single category of secondary legislation to replace the current complicated definitions of legislative instruments in the Legislation Act 2012. Having a single category for secondary legislation will make it easier for individuals and organisations to find the law as I've just said.So this is all jokes aside an important measure. I welcome its introduction into the House. It sounds as if it will be broadly supported. That's a good thing and I'm sure you'll all be delighted to hear that I really don't think I need to say anything more. Again I wish you all a very merry Christmas."