Mallard Trevor: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10371. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): It is a pity the Attorney-General has left the chair. If he is available it would be good if he could help with some of the interpretation that I think needs to occur. I have before me the Interpretation Act—in fact in the old days it used to be called the Acts Interpretation Act—and I want to refer to section 8(1) which refers to the commencement of legislation. I am referring of course to the commencement clause clause 2 of the Customs and Excise (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill. Section 8(1) of the Interpretation Act says: “An Act or an enactment in an Act comes into force on the date stated or provided in the Act for the commencement of the Act or for the commencement of the enactment.” I think it is fair to say that subsection (2) is not relevant for this particular point.But the question that I have for the Minister or if he needs help for the Attorney-General who is the Minister responsible for the Interpretation Act is whether it comes into force at the beginning of the day or at midday or at the end of the day. I do not know whether I should say that I am from the Opposition and I am here to help. But I think that if the Government wants something to come into effect from 1 July by way of amendment to regulations it is my understanding that it has to get it in place before then so that it takes effect on that particular day. We know that the Government’s attempt is to commence to get the petrol tax—and for a whole pile of reasons we think it is wrong—to go up all day on 1 July this year. I do not think there are any debates about 1 July 2014 and 1 July 2015—that is relatively clear.But the question I have got is whether by having the bill come into force on 1 July this year the Government is allowed under the Interpretation Act to get the money from—I used to work night shift at what used to be called The Ferry. I do not know what it is called now—the big Shell service station down there. It was back in the days when you had two standard pumps—one super pump and one diesel pump; there was a little thing on the triangle. There were petrol price changes and they were relatively frequent. There were carless days and there was a whole pile of different arrangements back in the time of a very good Labour Government sometimes going bad. There were price adjustments. But we always had notice and they always came in at midnight. They came in at midnight at the beginning of the day but that was because the enactments had been done effectively beforehand with notice for a particular day. But in this case the enactment comes into force only on the day when we expect the Government wants to lift the price of petrol. The question there is whether the commencement date is accurate.The other question in regard to dates that I want to ask the Minister about is how the commencement clause interplays with clause 7(2) of Part 2. Because what happens there is that regulation 6A of the principal regulations as inserted by clause 7(1) is revoked on 1 July 2015. What they—the dates as set out—appear to have the effect of doing and this is not clear is undoing the farmers’ exemption. If it is the Government’s intention to undo the farmers’ exemption and other people’s exemptions as at 1 July 2015—not for the whole lot but just for this extra 10c and GST—would it not be betterfor it to say something about that in the explanatory note? It is a relatively simple matter. I would appreciate—I know we are relatively early in this debate—