Roy Eric: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
Roy Eric: Waste Minimisation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:648;Page:17579] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I did not have the delight of sitting on the Local Government and Environment Committee. When I picked up this version of the bill I thought it was a huge improvement but I did hope that my colleagues on the select committee had some things to say about Part 3. This bill is a curate’s egg. It is good in parts and bad in parts. In my humble opinion this bill shows a nanny State gone wrong in terms of the striking of a levy in the select committee that is to apply nationally as a waste disposal levy. 
In this little bill here we have nearly 10 pages of prescriptive requirements about the setting of the levy the way the load is to be calculated what happens if the load is calculated wrongly whether one can have time to pay the levy and a whole lot of stuff. If we want a levy then we should say to the local authority: “You shall collect a levy.” That is all we need—a clause that says something like that. This bill is an absolute disaster. 
I have a very modest investment in a property in the Te Anau basin. I stress that it is quite quite modest. I am in the habit of using a refuse facility at Te Anau. I now have to pay a levy when I take stuff to the collection point. The cost depends on whether it is green waste whiteware or whatever. Workers at the collection point now decide how much I should pay for what I bring. Are they doing it ultra vires? I would like to have an argument with them if that is the case. 
When we start doing this we gets into all kinds of mix-ups. For example if we load up our trailer and go to the refuse point at Te Anau out past the golf course and we get there and have not brought the coupons then we cannot unload our stuff because the people at the refuse site cannot be trusted. So we have to go back to the BP garage in town or another outlet and buy our coupons and go back. Then the guy at the refuse point makes an assessment. He might say: “That is an overloaded double-axle trailer. You will need six coupons.” But his normal rule is that a double-axle trailer is five coupons. We have to go back to the BP station to get another coupon and then we go back and find that the refuse point is closed. All of those rules are now operating in a fulsome manner in the Te Anau basin without this legislation. It is bureaucracy gone mad. 
Then horror of horrors I see there are some delegated responsibilities that would allow the Minister to make other regulations in relation to the collecting— 
Mark Blumsky 
: You’ll be a good Minister. 
ERIC ROY 
: I have to say to Mr Blumsky that I do not want to be anywhere near this legislation. It is a serious case of nanny State gone wrong where the Local Government and Environment Committee has said that the collection of a waste disposal levy should not be $25 a tonne but $10 a tonne. I would love to know how it worked that out but in case we get it wrong we have 10 pages for a Minister with delegated responsibilities to sort it all out so that we can collect the waste disposal levy. 
This bill is good in parts but for goodness’ sake this bit here is overkill beyond any expression that one would like to have. Yes there needs to be a waste disposal—I am not arguing about that—but here the principle of enshrining something in law is a case of serious overkill. I hope my colleagues had some serious things to say about this part on the select committee. I ask whether we are supporting this clause. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Yes we are. 
ERIC ROY 
: Oh my gosh! We should wait until the next caucus meeting. There will be a sorting out over this thing. This is serious overkill. 
Mark Blumsky 
: Whose side are you on? 
ERIC ROY 
: Well I have expressed that I want to see the provisions of this bill enacted but I have to say that this is bureaucracy gone berserk. Oh dear oh dear!