Tisch Lindsay: State Sector Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: State Sector Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:610;Page:7333] 
LINDSAY TISCH (NZ National—Piako) 
: 
 Throughout this debate in the Committee stage I have pointed out—and I am still waiting for the Minister to take a call—the way this Government makes a habit by way of regulation through the executive and by Order in Council of allowing legislation to pass without the scrutiny of this Parliament. I said that it was an abuse of the system and I said that it was about politicisation because that is exactly what will happen. I refer back to the warning that was given by the Regulations Review Committee and I will read it again because that was the warning it passed on. But this Government has taken absolutely no notice and that is now reflected in the schedules which we see have expanded. The schedule in the bill started on page 11 went to page 13 and was two foolscap pages long but when we look at page 9 of the new Supplementary Order Paper we see a schedule 2 added on top of that which talks about “Consequential amendments to enactments arising out of the abolition of Department for Courts.” 
That is what the Hon Richard Prebble and Judith Collins have been talking about but what did the Regulations Review Committee say? It said: “The amendments will allow an Act of Parliament to be amended by regulation. It is therefore important to consider whether there are significantly strong reasons why this is a matter that should be dealt with in regulations rather than primary legislation.” That is the point that I keep making to this Parliament. It is the same point and an important point because transparency and the opportunity for people to have a say are taken away. 
The schedules that are now in the Supplementary Order Paper have a schedule 2 that was not in the bill which had only one schedule. We now have a schedule that talks about the District Courts and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. We have a Part 1 that breaks down further; we have a Part 2 that talks about regulations. Then there is a schedule 3. Where was schedule 3 in the bill? There was no schedule 3 in the bill. Where was that very short window of opportunity that we had in the select committee? At that stage the bill was rushed through. Submitters had only 9 days to consider the bill and there is absolutely no opportunity now for anybody to have a say. 
I have asked the Minister—and I am asking the Minister again—how he can now justify bringing in schedules that there has been absolutely no opportunity to debate criticise scrutinise or whatever. Not one Government member has been prepared to stand up in this Chamber today because this is the way they operate. It is all done by regulation and to hell with anybody else! Where is the democracy in that? Where is the opportunity for Joe Bloggs to come in and say anything? We now have a schedule No. 3 that talks about the “Consequential amendments to Fifth Schedule of Privacy Act 1993 arising out of abolition of Department for Courts”. Where has there been any opportunity for people to have an input? There has been no consultation. No one knows anything about this provision. People are hearing about it for the first time today. This Supplementary Order Paper is longer than the original bill and there is more material in it than there was in the original bill. We did not support the bill and we are certainly not supporting a Supplementary Order Paper that people have not had a chance to have an input into. 
I have referred to submissions made by the Law Society and I bet the society did not know about this Supplementary Order Paper because we did not know about it either until we actually got here. I know that the president of the Law Society will be pretty upset to know that this measure has been rushed through without the society having any opportunity to make a contribution. This legislation is wrong.