Simpson Scott; Parker DavidHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Chair. This is not an ordinary commencement clause. Usually in a bill the commencement clause says something like The Act will come into force on the day after Royal assent." or something similar to that. This is a very complicated and multifaceted commencement clause. Yes clause 2(1) says "The following provisions come into force on the day after Royal assent" but it then goes through to categorise and sectionalise whole groups of clauses and parts of this bill. I'm not going to go through each of those but let me just advise people who are listening or watching tonight that clause 2(1) goes through from paragraphs (a) through to (l). So there are lots of moving parts and different time tables for this.I want to refer specifically to clause 2(2C) where it says "Section 803 and Schedule 13 come into force on the earlier of (a) a date appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister for the Environment" and then (b) says "2 years after the date on which this Act receives the Royal assent." So this is a subclause that gives the Minister of the day quite a bit of discretion about timetabling. But then it goes on in clause 2(3) to say "The rest of this Act (except for provisions commenced under subsection (6)) comes into force on a date appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council"—again—"made on the recommendation of the Minister for the Environment."So I'm wondering whether the Minister can give us some indication as to what his thinking is about the timetabling that will be made by Order in Council triggered by his recommendation in those two subclauses. If he could give us some insight into that I think it would be helpful not only to the committee of the whole House but also to people watching. Ultimately it will give some indication and a degree of clarity I think to people who are going to have to work with this legislation albeit for a very short period of time.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Clause 803 relates to the coming into force of Schedule 13 which relates to the powers of the Environment Court that are reconstituted in a very similar way to the current constitution under the Resource Management Act (RMA) but under the new Act because the RMA eventually disappears and therefore if they were constituted in the future under the RMA that would lapse. So that's provided by that subclause that the member referred to to be two years after this bill receives Royal assent or an earlier date if things are moving ahead faster if that occurs through Order in Council.Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Chair and thank you Minister for that clarification that is useful. One of the criticisms of this entire piece of legislation is that it has the potential to create uncertainty judicial uncertainty that's going to require judicial interpretation and uncertainty about time frames and uncertainty for people who have to implement it and uncertainty for people who are trying to get developments done or to use the legislation to achieve the goals and objectives and desires that they seek to bring about.So clause 2(5) in Supplementary Order Paper 389 I think relates to a potential for even greater uncertainty. I want to just read out what subclause (5) says. It says "An Order in Council may bring different provisions of this Act into force on different dates for—(a) different districts or regions of local authorities; or (b) any area of New Zealand specified in the order." It's my contention that that lack of certainty and clarity about which parts of the country which districts which regions are going to have the legislation come into force as opposed to other parts of the country where the legislation's going to be in force already that that is only going to add to the confusion. Now I think that the Minister will probably point to the history of the implementation of the existing Resource Management Act (RMA) which was done by one king-hit and there were undoubtedly issues and problems with that. But to have a commencement clause as clause 2(5) indicates that creates a very clear distinction that some parts of the country are going to have this bill in force on different dates to other parts of the country—different regions different districts different local authorities—my contention is that that's only going to add a high level of uncertainty confusion and potentially cost to a developer for instance that may want to do a building development in one part of the country where the new provisions of this legislation have come into effect and are in force and are in play and might want to build another development in another part of the country that is still operating under the old RMA.So if the Minister could give us some idea about how he sees that timetabling—I know that for instance already I think that there are two regions that have been singled out for essentially being the guinea pigs for commencement of the legislation—that would be helpful to have some insight about why they were chosen what the purpose was and about the staged and staggered implementation of this legislation. Thank you.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): The first point I would make is that if people were worried about uncertainty they would be worried about an Opposition who if elected promise to repeal this then repeal the Resource Management Act but haven't specified how they will fix it; whereas this fixes the system and allows the country to move forward.In respect of clause 2(5) that matter was well considered by the Environment Committee and the select committee agreed that the system should turn on region by region rather than every region at once. The reference at subclause (5)(b) is included in order to cover parts of New Zealand that aren't actually covered by district or regional council. There's the occasional offshore island that's effectively managed by either the Department of Conservation or the Department of Internal Affairs."