Statutes Repeal Bill

This is the longest debate that I have ever had on such a minor bill.

💬 Hon Jo Goodhew: The member certainly tells it as it is.

That is true. It is absolutely right. I was going to say that one day the member will find herself over here, but apparently she will not.

💬 Hon Amy Adams: Neither will the rest of us.

💬 Hon Jo Goodhew: Been there, done my time.

That is right. But clause 5 of the bill repeals the Act once it has been passed. It is a rather interesting provision, because this bill will be made law the day after it receives the Royal assent—so the Governor-General signs the law to say it is now the law. Then 28 days later it will disappear. It seems to me rather interesting that that would be the case because we are repealing a number of other Acts that have already been repealed. So in view of the fact that this bill has a self-destruct clause, if we could call it that, what I would like to know from the Minister in the chair, Nicky Wagner, is whether that then means that it will not then, at any point, itself need to be included in a future statutes repeal bill.

💬 Paul Foster-Bell: That’s right.

Paul Foster-Bell says “That’s right.”, but go back to the Rugby World Cup legislation that this repeal bill repeals.

The Rugby World Cup legislation had a self-destruct clause as well, but the self-destruct clause was by Order in Council, so the Act could be repealed when a Minister signed a piece of paper by Order in Council that said that it was repealed, and that was done. So why is it that that Act, having been repealed by an Order in Council, is now having to be repealed again as part of this bill yet this bill will then not have to be repealed—I know this is sounding very, very circular—by another future repeal bill?

So does clause 5 mean that this is it for this bill—completely finished?

💬 Paul Foster-Bell: Yes.

Well, Paul Foster-Bell should perhaps be the Minister in the chair. Maybe he has resigned too early from the House, because he seems to be willing to engage in the debate, which the Minister in the chair, the Hon Nicky Wagner, who is actually responsible for the legislation, does not seem willing to do.

Actually, it is an important issue because the reason that we are having this debate—we would not even need to have this debate if clause 5, which we have got here, had been included in all of the other repeal bills that are now being repealed by this repeal bill, and then we would not need to have further repeal bills. So a simple question: does this mean that it is the end of the matter for this bill? If it does, that is a good thing. If that is the case, then we should certainly put this into all of our future statutes amendment bills and other bills like that so that we do not then have to come back and have these debates in the future.

Clause 5 agreed to.

Schedule 1 Repeals

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 315 in the name of Chris Hipkins to schedule 1 be agreed to.