Report of Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce

Report of Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce Welcomed

“On a first examination, the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce appears to have produced an outstanding and robust report that deserves the support of the government and parliament”, the executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, Roger Kerr, said today.

“Poor quality regulation has been a perennial problem which has become worse in recent years. Less and better regulation must be a key element of the government’s programme for substantially raising New Zealand living standards.

“We are convinced that statutory disciplines relating to both new and existing regulations are needed”, Mr Kerr said. “Existing arrangements are simply not working.

“Establishing principles of responsible regulation (drawn from well-established sources of constitutional authority), requiring ministers and chief executives to certify that regulations are consistent with them, and enabling the courts to declare that legislation is incompatible with the principles are important building blocks of a better regulatory framework.

“We think the Taskforce has carefully considered the proper constitutional relationship between the executive, parliament and the courts, and that its proposals support the adoption of sound regulations while maintaining the sovereignty of parliament.

“A Regulatory Responsibility Act has the potential to improve regulatory disciplines in the same way that the Reserve Bank Act and the former Fiscal Responsibility Act (now part of the Public Finance Act) have improved monetary and fiscal policy disciplines. The concept ranks with these ‘economic constitutions’ as a policy reform of the highest order.

“The Taskforce deserves congratulations for its work and the Business Roundtable strongly supports further testing of the proposed bill by a select committee and subsequent enactment of it by parliament next year”, Mr Kerr concluded.

ENDS

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