Russell Deborah; Tolley AnneDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. My fellow members of this House I rise to speak on this bill which is about the importance of housekeeping: of putting things in place of tidying up of creating new uses for old materials and where necessary spending a little bit of time effort and money in making the place neat and tidy and clean again—or to make things run a bit more smoothly to do better to refresh and renew. This is the essence of housekeeping.I guess we often doubt the value of housekeeping. It's underpaid undervalued and typically done by women. It's women's work". I'm delighted to see so many people here gathered so enthusiastically in the task of housekeeping our legislation; I think it's a task we should be taking very very seriously indeed. You know the need for ongoing housekeeping has long been recognised in thinking about Government. As far back as say Aristotle—Aristotle recognised and claimed that over time monarchy if it was not tended would turn into tyranny. Aristocracy if it was not regularly cleaned would turn into oligarchy and democracy—our precious democracy—would turn into anarchy.Aristotle's solution because he didn't think of doing regular housekeeping was the need for a great man to refresh to revise and to reform. Now lest the former Attorney-General thinks that I am referring to him I say that 2000 years later we've moved on from the need of a great man to set things right and we're a bit more optimistic about democracy and we are indeed a bit more optimistic about the efficacy of housekeeping of keeping our own house in order but only if we continue to do that. The particular dust ball that needed to be cleaned up this time—in fact not so much a dust ball as a great horde of bric-a-brac and lumber stashed in the back shed where nothing could be found or ever seen—was access to secondary legislation. In terms of access to secondary legislation we know the problems with it. We know that people couldn't find it; we know that people didn't understand it. We know that it was dusty old tomes locked in a box somewhere where no one could understand what it was about.The particular one I suppose that is the most important one that has been discussed tonight is the whey protein concentrate contamination incident. In the investigation it was found that the secondary legislation ran to more than 3 metres of desk space—3 metres. You know that sounds like the US tax code which runs to metres and metres and metres of desk space. But here in New Zealand we take great pride in our Tax Act which is quite small. It occupies maybe 40 centimetres of desk space—or if it's in a larger font maybe a bit more depending on who's doing the reading.I say that this bill does exactly what we've done with our tax code. We've refined it we've made it easier we've turned into simpler language and we've made sure that it hasn't expanded to fill ever more and more space. And this is exactly what we're doing with our rules: the new legislation that is being introduced in this bill to control secondary legislation and act to it and the control of it.So it's a really important piece of legislation in that way and it will improve access to secondary legislation and that's incredibly important. You know our fellow citizens need to know and understand the rules that govern us. That is a fundamental part of the rule of law. You know there's some fairly standard accounts of the rule of law some fairly general characteristics of the rule of law: that the law should be general that it should apply to everyone that it should be prospective not retrospective that the law should not be changed too frequently that there should be no contradictions in the law that there should be a congruence between official action and the law the laws must be known to those to whom they apply that the laws should be clear and that the laws should not be impossible.I suggest that our secondary legislation did not comply with the rule of law and this is a problem that we must fix. We must fix this not as a simple matter of keeping the place clean and tidy because we like it that way but because it is a way that enables our fellow citizens and us to participate in our incredibly robust democracy. The rule of law is an important part of the way that we govern ourselves and our secondary legislation was an effective barrier to doing that. Our secondary legislation was complex it was hidden and it was obscure. We are opening the curtains we are bringing in the light and we are making sure that it can be seen. That is why this legislation is important.Kieran McAnulty: It's vital.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Vital—thank you Mr McAnulty. It's not just secondary legislation that's important in this particular bill. There are also changes being made to the Interpretation Act so that the interpretation of our law will belong in the Legislation Act so that our fellow citizens can find it all in the one place; bringing some of it up to date so that we are using modern and contemporary language forms and doing some stuff as simple as updating the definition of Te Ika-a-Māui and Te Wai Pounamu to make sure which offshore islands are included in which major island. You know that's a little bit like keeping all your cleaning materials in one place. When our fellow citizens need to know how to interpret the law there will be one place that they can go to to find it exactly how the law should be interpreted and that will be in the Legislation Act.Another thing that this bill is going to address is disclosure statements and that is all about making Government more accountable and more open. It ensures that all the background material on Acts is being made publicly available to our fellow citizens and that any initial circumstances are being highlighted. It is a much more enduring commitment to a disclosure by us in this House. If I may I would make this be like the woodwork being polished so that marks will be seen and can be scrutinised clearly and effectively.All of these steps—a number of steps which are being taken—will enhance our democracy. They will all help our fellow citizens to understand the law. They will help our fellow citizens to access the law. They will help us in our own daily tasks to understand what we are doing in this House and to search out the law and to be able to apply it. So for these reasons I recommend this particular bill to the house. We are making our democracy truly clean and livable.There is one final aspect of this legislation that I want to speak to and it is to do with the wonderful website .Chris Bishop: Great website.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: It's a great website. As a former tax lecturer I used this website extensively. I would pull it up on the screen for my students to follow; I would use it myself for my own research. But the most effective use of it for me was with my students and helping them to trace their way through the sometimes complex rules in the Tax Act—clicking through from one definition to another from one clause to another getting back to a schedule and finding all the legislation that applied in a particular circumstance. It was an invaluable tool in that regard. I think that's a marvellous website and I recommend it to anyone who is trying to find their way through the law.But one brilliant aspect of this legislation is that much—and we hope in time all—of our secondary legislation will be available through this excellent website making it much more accessible to our fellow citizens and much more accessible to us. I suggest that as well as being an invaluable teaching aid for our lecturers and our universities and polytechnics and the like it will also be invaluable to all of us who are trying to follow the law on a daily basis. Again if we go back to that housekeeping analogy this is not just merely cleaning out under the beds and behind the fridge; it's actually building something new and fresh and creating a new way for us to understand and access the law to understand its complexity and to understand how it operates in our democracy.So if you have not done so already I recommend that you access the website and have a play around; see what you can find of law. It will be invaluable to you and invaluable to us and especially invaluable to our democracy. So we will not need a great man to reform our democracy; instead all we need is the ongoing daily quotidian work of housekeeping and it is for that reason that I recommend this bill to you.Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the member is recommending the bill to the House not to the Speaker. I think it's a good bill."