Lee Melissa: Standards and Accreditation Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Standards and Accreditation Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7188. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): It is a great pleasure to rise to speak on the third reading of the Standards and Accreditation Bill. I commend the Minister for the hard work that he has actually given on this bill.I would like to begin by thanking everyone who has actually been involved with the select committee process. As the chair of the very vibrant Commerce Committee I say we have a very good committee process and I would like to thank the Opposition members as well as our Government members and the clerks and the secretariat who have actually given a lot of hard work in getting this bill to its third reading.When this bill was brought before the Commerce Committee I think we had around 130 submissions and we heard about 21 of them. We have as a committee recommended a more flexible and proportionate approach to managing actual and perceived conflicts of interest for members of standards development committees which was actually raised as a big concern at the committee when we were debating this bill. In addition we have also made it clear that New Zealand will continue to be involved in the development of international standards. As I said earlier the Commerce Committee undertook the role well and I commend my colleagues for their contribution and time and effort to bring this bill back to the House.I would also like to make it very clear that standards are very very important to New Zealand’s economy and safety as a growing OECD economy. Standards are put in place to ensure that our homes public buildings playgrounds electrical appliances—I even talked about light bulbs in previous speeches about this I think—and health services are in fact safe for all New Zealanders.Standards can be used obviously to protect people in our environment but they also have the capacity to increase productivity and drive innovation. In addition they are generally voluntary. Firms can choose to use them and support a standard support competitiveness productivity and trade. Especially with the advent of the New Zealand - Korea free-trade agreement that was signed earlier in the year in March and with the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement we are actually dealing with numerous countries that we are working together with as trade partners and I think standards actually become prominent and more important as a result. If for example when we are talking about standards an electrical product is marked as meeting a standard it means it has satisfied the minimum safety requirements—that is what we are talking about. Therefore it is easy to see why standards are in fact crucial for our safety.There is a huge impact on our economy as well. Standards actually underpin billions of dollars’ worth of exports as I was alluding to prior when talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the free-trade agreements with other nations. When we are talking about exports New Zealand firms are dealing in a competitive environment with international partners and standards actually become crucial. Standards provide access to markets and give quality assurance for the products and technologies that New Zealanders use on a daily basis. Standards improve the effectiveness safety and reliability of many goods and services used by consumers and businesses. It is clear that standards and accreditation make an important contribution to a more productive and competitive economy.The new bill is designed to ensure that New Zealand’s standards conformance and accreditation system functions well and meets the needs of businesses regulators and consumers. The Standards and Accreditation Bill is part of the Business Growth Agenda and is aimed at strengthening the development and delivery of New Zealand standards just as fresh legislation is being looked at to tackle obsolete laws loopy rules and out-of-date Acts of Parliament that are no longer needed in our modern and innovative society.The new Standards and Accreditation Bill follows a comprehensive review to ensure our standards systems remain independent and sustainable. We sought stakeholder views on the effectiveness of current arrangements for standards on options for changes to organisational arrangements and on how standards could be developed and approved. With this new bill we will implement those voices that were actually heard as a result of the stakeholder consultation.In short the new bill will better align standards development with important Government priorities that are vital for our economy such as innovation and trade facilitation. The focus of the Standards and Accreditation Bill is on preserving and strengthening what works with our current arrangements and improving and reforming what is lacking from that. We are aiming to improve standards development that has been slow to reform standards that are out of date as well. We are aiming here in this House to give real outcomes to business and industry. It is vital that New Zealand continues to be involved in the development of international standards and maintains its linkages with the international standards community including the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.Through the Standards and Accreditation Bill we aim to provide an assurance that products and services are in fact fit for purpose—that standards play a crucial role in contributing to trade innovation health and safety. As chair of the Commerce Committee and as a National MP I say that it is part of the amazing work that the Ministers in the House have put together and I am very satisfied with the outcome. I commend this bill to the House.