Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2)

on behalf of the Leader of the House: I move, That the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) be now read a first time. At the conclusion of the first reading debate I will move that the bill be referred to the Regulations Review Committee, that the committee report finally to the House by 15 November 2010, and, notwithstanding the Standing Orders, that the committee can meet on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House, during a sitting of the House, or during an evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House.

This is a routine, technical bill. It comes before the House every year, but it is a very important bill all the same.

💬 Sue Moroney: Why are you extending them?

If members sit and listen, they will be told why the bill needs to be put through by that time. The bill confirms or validates items of subordinate legislation that must be confirmed or validated by Parliament. This is a requirement of the empowering Acts under which the various orders or regulations have been made. The role played by the House in confirming or validating the various items—and, in particular, the scrutiny provided by the Regulations Review Committee—provides an additional layer of protection in the regulation-making process. Should the House decide to withhold its approval for a particular regulation or order contained in the bill, that regulation or order will lapse. That said, this bill traditionally receives cross-party support.

All of the orders and regulations in this bill are certainly of a technical character. There are 15 orders or regulations listed in the bill that are to be confirmed or validated. They have been made under 10 different Acts. I shall provide a brief summary for the benefit of the House of each instrument confirmed or validated by the bill.

One set of regulations is made under the Animal Products Act 1999. These regulations make a variety of minor changes to animal product - related matters, including confirmation of the new fee charged for a reissue of official assurance, of the annual registration fee for transport operators, and of the applications to list as a certified supplier of pet food, and an increase in the basic hourly charge on certain export and game sectors.

An order made under the Biosecurity Act 1993 allows for the imposition of levies on particular goods imported into New Zealand. The order sets out the basis upon which the levy is calculated and sets a maximum levy rate of $18 per leviable importation. The order also makes some technical changes around the arbitration process for determining who is required to pay a levy, and the amount that is payable.

The bill includes an order under the Civil Aviation Act 1990. The order sets a domestic passenger levy that is payable by the particular airline operators. Two commodity levies are confirmed. The first is a levy on meat—defined as beef and sheep meat—produced by livestock farmers. The second is a levy on New Zealand - grown grapes that are used to make wine, grape juice, or grape juice concentrate.

💬 Chris Hipkins: Outrageous!

I knew the member would be interested in that.

💬 Chris Hipkins: Outrageous!

Well, it is quite important, actually. Rates of excise and excise-equivalent duties imposed on tobacco products and alcoholic beverages are adjusted annually to reflect the movement in the Consumers Price Index. This bill confirms the duties that were imposed on 1 January 2010 and 1 July 2010 respectively. The bill confirms the levy rates that are payable by gaming-machine operators, the Lotteries Commission, and the New Zealand Racing Board. Together these levies constitute the Government’s problem gambling levy—a very important levy.

Two orders made pursuant to the Social Security Act 1964 and the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 are confirmed. The orders increase various benefits and allowances to reflect a 1.96 percent increase in the Consumers Price Index from December 2008 to December 2009. One of the orders also makes a further supplementary increase to New Zealand superannuation payments. I am sure that members on the other side are interested in that order and would not want to hold it up.

The bill confirms two orders setting out various rates of road-user charges. The orders increase the rates of particular road-user charges while leaving other rates unchanged.

Two orders relate to matters of trade. One reduces and removes tariffs on most goods that are imported from the countries subject to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. The other order amends tariff rates to give effect to the Malaysia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement—again, something that I know members on the other side are interested in.

Finally, the bill confirms an order increasing certain rates of war pensions, lump-sum payments, and allowances in line with an increase in the Consumers Price Index. In addition, the order makes a further supplementary increase to the rates of war pensions. Again, I am sure that members on that side support that order. As a consequence, I am pleased to commend this bill to the House.

I am very happy to take a brief call on the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2). I thank the Minister of Civil Defence for his very thorough description of the contents of the bill and all of the different orders and so forth that it confirms and validates.

I want to raise an issue with the Deputy Leader of the House to do with the referral motion to the Regulations Review Committee. I considered whether we wanted to move an amendment to that referral motion. I think, given that it is going to the Regulations Review Committee, which is chaired by a Labour member—whom I am sure will act very responsibly—I saw no need to do that. But I am concerned about the tendency for the Government, whenever it moves a referral motion now, to give committees the power to meet when the House is sitting under urgency, or even under normal sitting hours. I am very concerned about that because it prevents members from effectively participating in both the House and select committees. It is something that the Government is doing too often at the moment. In this particular case there may well be reasonable justification for that; because of the confirmation and validation nature of this legislation, undue delay could be problematic. In most of the cases that the Government is moving referral motions, it is totally unnecessary. That is just a general observation. I think the Government is doing it too often. In this case moving an amendment is not necessarily a valid thing to do, but it would be good to see the Government respect the House a little more. I am aware that the Deputy Leader of the House respects the institution of Parliament to a high degree, and I think it is really important that members get the opportunity to participate both here in the Chamber and in select committees without having to juggle those two things unless it is absolutely necessary. Overall, the Labour Opposition sees no need to delay this legislation unnecessarily and we intend to vote in favour of it.

💬 Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, the question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that opinion will say Aye—

💬 Hon John Carter: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I beg your pardon. I am sorry. The member from the Green Party did not call, but I think he is seeking a call.

💬 Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is happening far too regularly. Members are not seeking the call when the time comes. Once I put the motion that we move to the vote, I do not have to come back to allow a speaker to speak. It is very, very clear. It happened last night, and it has happened again now. If members wish to call they must be on their feet instantaneously. Otherwise, I will be putting the question.

My apologies, but I understood that others were planning to speak ahead of my slot, so I gave it a moment. I leaped up as fast as I could but clearly not fast enough—my apologies.

This is just a very brief call to offer the Green Party’s views on the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2). I say simply that we have been through each of the clauses pertaining to extending or affirming the Animal Products Act, the Biosecurity Act, the Civil Aviation Act, the Commodity Levies Act, and others. There are 10 all up and we have given each one significant consideration. We have to say that we do not support all of them. We find that we can support six of them: those relating to the Animal Products Act, the Biosecurity Act, the Commodity Levies Act, the Customs and Excise Act, and the Social Security Act, as well as the War Pensions Act, and we have no particular opposition to the Civil Aviation Act and the Road User Charges Act.

We have traditionally opposed all agreements or legislation pertaining to free trade, so we have opposition to the validation and confirmation under the Tariff Act 1988. We also have problems with the Gambling Act 2003, on the understanding that we do not support this Act because it puts levies on two of the most accessible and harmful gambling practices: pokies and racing. This means that it will probably result in less tax take from these and more profit to the providers, and perhaps more incentive to open a pokie parlour, so we have opposition to that particular Act.

We oppose two of these Acts, but we do not wish to be unduly negative. In light of our opposition to those two Acts, we plan to abstain on the vote. Thank you.

on behalf of the Leader of the House: I move, That the Regulations Review Committee consider the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) and that the committee report finally to the House on or before 15 November 2010.

Motion agreed to.