'One Law' Is Regulatory Responsibility

Hon Heather Roy, ACT Deputy Leader
Friday, April 9 2010

Tidying up the statute books has been on ACT's agenda for a long time. Laws - old and new - should be clear, enforceable and routinely enforced.

This is the responsibility of politicians; it's our job to make laws, and they should be effective.

Last week our longstanding Regulatory Responsibility campaign moved forward another step with the passing into law of ACT Leader Rodney Hide's Regulatory Improvement Bill. Its predecessor, the Regulatory Responsibility Bill, was first introduced to Parliament as a Private Members Bill in Rodney Hide's name. That Bill sought to reduce the amount of legislation and ensure that new laws are relevant and effective. It proposed a regular review of all legislation to ensure it is still relevant, and a test for new laws through simple questions: what is this law for? What will the cost of implementing this law be? What are the unintended consequences likely to be?

Regulatory Responsibility is one of the key planks of ACT's Confidence & Supply Agreement with the National Party. Rodney Hide is Minister of Regulatory Responsibility and, in August last year, he and Bill English announced that officials and Ministers must strengthen the impact statements that are done for every new piece of legislation.

Ministers must verify that a new law is "required, reasonable and robust". It must be in the public interest, benefits of the Bill must outweigh the costs, all practical alternatives must have been considered, and potential risks must have been addressed. In short, best legislative practice must be observed. Chief executives are responsible for ensuring that existing law also conforms to these criteria.

The emphasis is on law conforming to a set of principles - those announced last August and those of property rights, including compensation for property that is taken by the State for itself.

So what does Regulatory Reform mean in practice?

My Consumer Affairs 'One Law' initiative is an example of Regulatory Responsibility in action. When I became Minister and looked at the 11 consumer laws I was responsible for, it became obvious that many were outdated and no longer relevant.

A good example is the Auctioneer's Act (1928) - a quirky piece of legislation enacted when livestock auctions were held frequently in most towns. Licensing fees were established and the pure volume of livestock auctions created costs to local authorities in cleaning the "mess" from the streets following outdoor proceedings. Obviously things have moved on since 1928, and a review of the Act is long over due. The current fee, and how it is distributed, should be reassessed to better suit a different time and age. For example, online auctions - something not even imaginable in 1928 - are currently causing some concern.

Effective consumer laws help to create a competitive business environment in which consumers can transact with confidence and honest businesses compete on a level playing field. However, like other business regulation where consumer laws do not achieve their objective or are no longer relevant to the way the market operates, they can be a drag on the innovative potential of businesses.

With all of this in mind, my planning began from the premise that simplicity is the key to effective market activity.

I asked Ministry of Consumer Affairs officials to explore a simplification programme, which I called 'One Law', with a goal of a principle-based piece of consumer-supplier legislation similar to the approach found in the Privacy Act. My instructions were to review the 11 pieces of consumer law for their relevance to today and their ability to be relevant into the future as many have been overtaken by time or technology. Then, how could these be merged to cover what is a relatively simple process of transaction with a buyer, a seller and a guiding set of principles to cover a trade scenario? This work is currently underway.

In reality we are likely end up with two principles based laws: an enhanced Fair Trading Act (FTA) and the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA). The Door to Door Sales Act 1967, Lay-by Sales Act 1971, Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1975, Auctioneers Act 1928, Weights and Measures Act 1987, Carriage of Goods Act 1979, Sales of Goods Act 1908, and Sale of Goods (United Nations Convention) Act 1994 will all be absorbed into the FTA and CGA in line with the principles of good Regulatory Responsibility.

My 'One Law' project - officially called the Consumer Law Reform Bill - is now part of the Regulatory Review Programme. It is a great example of what could be achieved in many other areas. My goal is to leave the statute books I'm responsible for in better shape than I found them. There's plenty to be done.

Lest We Forget - Opening of New Zealand's First State Secondary School
Nelson College, the first ever State secondary school in New Zealand, opened on April 7, 1856 with a roll of only eight boys. At that time the college was based on temporary premises in Trafalgar Square, Nelson. It moved again to Manuka Street before relocating a third and final time to its current location in Waimea Road.

In 1857 the school's Deed of Foundation set out the college curriculum - which included English language and literature, geography, mathematics, classics, history, drawing, music and science - and stated the school's purpose as the "advancement of religion and morality, and the promotion of useful knowledge, by offering to the youth of the Province general education of a superior character."

Nelson College soon attracted boys from both the Nelson area and wider New Zealand - including Nobel Prize-winner Ernest Rutherford, Leonard Trent VC, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, and former Prime Ministers Wallace Rowling and Geoffrey Palmer.

ENDS

© Scoop Media