Ardern Shane: Statutes Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Ardern Shane: Statutes Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11513] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the National Party in support of the Statutes Amendment Bill. and I thank the Minister the Hon Clayton Cosgrove for his kind remarks in regard to the excellent Government Administration Committee which did a fine job of looking at all 50 Acts that this Statues Amendment Bill amends. 
Hon David Carter 
: Fifty? 
SHANE ARDERN 
: This Statues Amendment Bill amends 50 Acts. Can I say to members of the House—and to anyone who may be listening to this riveting speech—that this is one of those rare occasions when we do have multiparty or multipartisan if you like support for this type of action. We are talking about an omnibus bill which is a useful tool in terms of the process of Parliament for any Government to amend in a non-controversial and technical way. Not everything in Parliament is controversial and adversarial and can I say that that makes the life of an Opposition spokesman quite difficult when I am supposed to speak on something that has 50 amendments in it. But having said that I say that there are a number of issues I wish to canvass with the House. 
First of all I thank the officials who gave us excellent advice on the select committee and all the members of the select committee. At an appropriate time National intends to move a Supplementary Order Paper in regard to the Real Estate Agents Act 1976 although I think I heard the Minister say in his speech that the Government itself intends to do that. If the Minister is intending to do that I ask him to nod. So it appears as though that might be taken care of. A member from within the National caucus wrote to the Minister and the Minister did not respond to that letter but he is clearly responding now so it looks like that matter is attended to. 
 The second issue I think the members of the select committee struggled with for some time was the amendments to the Real Estate Agents Act 1976—which I have mentioned—and also the amendments in relation to the Ombudsmen and the Audit Office with regard to a number of matters there. The reason the committee considered that over a period of time was that it was neither non-controversial nor minor in its outcome. It may have been intended that that was what was going to be the case but effectively it took what was an action within the Standing Orders out of the Standing Orders and introduced legislation around it. That should not happen under this circumstance. In fact it should happen in separate legislation or in a separate debate through a committee that is tasked with looking at the detail of it. On balance the committee decided that it was not the right vehicle for that so it was removed. 
As biosecurity spokesman I was pleased to see that the amendments to the Biosecurity Act 1993—which as the Minister said allows inspectors to seize unauthorised goods along with risk goods—will simplify an inspector’s powers to seize non-risk unauthorised goods including imported goods that have not been declared or goods that have been cleared using misleading or fraudulent documentation. That is also something that is very positive in this process. 
I also say that the select committee did not receive a large number of submissions on this bill. It would not be appropriate for me as the chair to say at this stage how many submissions it received. I am sure other members might want to speak on that if the Minister has not done so already. The submission we received was of a very high quality. Having said that I point out that the Statutes Amendment Bill is what it was intended to be: a non-controversial highly technical amendment. It is my pleasure to support the passage of this legislation through the House.