Curran Clare: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Curran Clare: Regulatory Improvement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 30 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:10173. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 I take this opportunity to speak in the Committee stage of the Regulatory Improvement Bill. This bill was dealt with at the Commerce Committee which I am a member of. I thank the members of the select committee for the time that they devoted to this bill and I thank the people who made on submissions on the bill for their time. In total 10 submissions were received three of which were heard by the Commerce Committee. We received advice from the Ministry of Economic Development the Ministry of Consumer Affairs the Department of Conservation the Ministry for the Environment the Ministry of Fisheries the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Environmental Risk Management Authority. 
The Commerce Committee made two main changes to the bill. The first change related to the Designs Act 1953. The Designs Act provides for the restoration of lapsed copyright in a registered design in circumstances where the lapse was as a result of neglect to pay the renewal fee or to make the necessary application. The Commerce Committee recommended that in addition to allowing the restoration of lapsed copyright and registered designs the bill should allow the restoration of lapsed copyright in design applications. The committee also recommended that the bill should give specific authorisation for the commissioner to publish bibliographical details of design applications. 
The change to the Designs Act in the bill relates to its coming into effect on the earlier of the following: 12 months after the bill receives Royal assent or a date to be appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council. However clause 14 which enables regulations to be made should come into effect on the day after the date on which the bill receives the Royal assent along with the rest of the bill. It also recommends that the bill should give specific authorisation for the commissioner to publish bibliographical details of design applications and that the bill in addition to allowing the restoration of lapsed copyright in registered designs should allow the restoration of lapsed copyright in design applications. 
The second main change was around the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 which enables the delegation of technical decision-making power by the Environmental Risk Management Authority to the chief executive and other staff of the authority or other persons and it enables applications to import develop or field test non - genetically modified organisms or non-GMOs as they are called in containment to be treated consistently with each other and with applications to import or develop low-risk genetically modified organisms in containment. It also enables applications for conditional release of low-risk non-GMOs to be treated consistently with applications for full release of low-risk non-GMOs. 
There is a whole list of other things that this Act does. The changes proposed by the Commerce Committee include a recommendation that the provision in the bill amending section 141A of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act which relates to incorporation by reference of material into regulations and other instruments be amended to conform with new standard clauses prepared by the Parliamentary Counsel Office to give effect to the principles established by the Regulations Review Committee and its inquiry into material incorporated by reference in 2004. Those are the two main changes to the bill. 
As I said earlier this omnibus bill makes amendments to nine pieces of legislation with the objective of improving the whole of the regulatory framework and reducing the compliance burden on business. The Acts that are to be amended are the Companies Act 1993 the Conservation Act 1987 the Designs Act 1953 the Fisheries Act 1996 the Gas Act 1992 the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996—