Tisch Lindsay: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Tisch Lindsay: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:615;Page:11190] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 National supports the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4). This is an omnibus bill to effect non-controversial amendments. As the Minister has identified the bill has 20 parts and there are two schedules. As has been mentioned National does not support Part 12 which deals with the Motor Vehicle Sales Act. The reason for that is that this Act came into effect last year and our view is that it was a comprehensive piece of legislation and it should have been got right the first time. We are not in a position to support that part and the Minister identified that. The rest of it we are certainly comfortable with but that is one part we do not support. 
Although a Statutes Amendment Bill is non-controversial there must be very close scrutiny of what the amendments are and constraints must be in place—otherwise we will find legislation slipping through. If we look at Standing Orders 259 to 262 we see that the omnibus bills are specifically identified. I just want to identify what they are because it is important that we realise that there is a provision in the Standing Orders to allow that to happen. There are finance bills—and this is in Standing Order 261—or confirmation bills. We have local legislation bills that contain provisions affecting particular localities. We have a Maori Purposes Bill (No 2) and the fourth one is the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill and the fifth is the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 4) that consists entirely of amendments to Acts and this House is debating that bill today. 
Some of those amendments beg the question why the Government is involved in so many pieces of legislation. One of them for example is the Fire Service Act. The Fire Service does not receive any Government funding at all. It is funded by levies on insurance policies and not one dollar of Government money goes to the service. The racing industry is similarly placed. Briefly I want to identify what some of those Acts cover. I will not go through them all because I am sure other speakers will be talking especially about legislation of a legal nature: Part 2 “Conservation Act 1987” deals with the transfer or release of live aquatic life into fresh water which is subject to the prior approval of the Minister of Conservation. Before seeking approval an applicant must advertise for submissions and the amendment provides for 20 working days for the receipt of submissions. That part is fairly straightforward and we certainly have no problems with it. 
In relation to Part 3 “Electoral Act 1993” members will be aware that an inquiry is going on at the moment into the last election. While this part is important and should go through there may well be changes later on to the whole Electoral Act and this part will become redundant. However currently the Electoral Act concerns the list of candidates that political parties submit to the Chief Electoral Officer and he or she must be provided with the written consent of each candidate named on the list. That is pretty straightforward and we have no difficulty with that. 
Part 4 “Evidence Act 1908” is really a legal matter and I am sure members who are lawyers will be looking at that part because it is definitely in their field. I will not elaborate on that further but I would certainly like to hear what the lawyers have to say. 
I mentioned the Fire Service Act of 1975 and the point I made earlier was that here we have legislation in which the Government has no financial involvement. What section 3 of the Act does is to establish the New Zealand Fire Service under the control of the New Zealand Fire Service Commission. That amendment is interesting in that the office within the New Zealand Fire Service was abolished in 1990 so it is redundant. Here we are 13 years later amending that Act and it is a wonder that that has not been picked up before now. 
Part 5 also deals with the rural fire management code and national rural fire officers. We are not talking about the 8500 volunteers in our communities. The Rural Fire Authority has about 300 paid members and this part clarifies part of their involvement. It also updates the national commander’s powers with power of entry to assess a building’s evacuation scheme. Part 6 “Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977” relates to fire safety margins and there are 9 clauses to be amended in this part. They are fairly significant but under Part 6 the amendments will be fairly straightforward. 
Part 7 “Geneva Conventions Act 1958” goes way back and once again I am sure that the lawyers will be giving this part and what it allows great scrutiny. This amendment removes reference to the death sentence. We have not had the death sentence for many years and the principal Act will be amended by this statute. 
Part 9 “Land Transfer Act 1952” contains 16 clauses that amend sections of the principal Act and if members look at them closely they will see that they are mainly of a technical nature. 
Part 10 “Maritime Transport Act 1994” relates to civil liability for pollution of the marine environment caused by ship owners owners of marine structures and persons in charge of marine operations. A number of other clauses relate to that as well. Part 11 “Medicines Act 1981” is another amendment. I have said that we will not support Part 12 “Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003”. Part 13 “National Parks Act 1980” is another amendment. 
The Minister mentioned the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act in his opening remarks and the principal Act will be amended to change the name of the Residual Health Management Unit to the Crown Health Financing Agency. 
The Minister also mentioned the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act. I mentioned the Racing Act earlier on. The Radiocommunications Act the Reserves Act the Telecommunications Act and the Trade in Endangered Species Act will all be amended as well. 
All in all there are a considerable number of amendments for the Government Administration Committee of which I am a member to consider and we will scrutinise them more closely. National is happy to support all those parts except for Part 12 which I identified earlier as the part we cannot support.