Hon Rodney Hide, Minister for Regulatory Reform, introduced the Regulatory Standards Bill to Parliament on 15 March 2011.
The Regulatory Standards Bill aimed to improve the quality of regulation in New Zealand. The Bill proposed:
- A set of legislative principles that all good regulation (being Acts of Parliament, statutory regulations, and tertiary legislation, but excluding regulation made by local government) should comply with.
- A requirement that Ministers and Chief Executives responsible for regulation certify as to whether that regulation is consistent with the principles before the regulation is made.
- A new power to the courts to declare that a particular piece of regulation is inconsistent with one or more principles.
- A number of supporting changes.
The Regulatory Standards Bill was produced by the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce. The Government established the Taskforce in 2009 following a recommendation from the Commerce Committee. The Commerce Committee made this recommendation in the context of its consideration of the Regulatory Responsibility Bill, an earlier version of the Regulatory Standards Bill, which was introduced into the House as a private member’s bill in 2006. The 2008 National-ACT Confidence and Supply Agreement included a commitment from the National-led Government to establish a taskforce to carry forward work on the bill.
The Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce produced its draft bill (then still known as the Regulatory Responsibility Bill) and an accompanying report on 30 September 2009.
Hon Rodney Hide released the Bill and accompanying report on 29 October 2009. The Bill and the report are available here.
From late June to late August 2010, the Government ran a public consultation process on the draft bill produced by the Taskforce. Submitters were asked to respond to a set of questions on the draft bill and regulatory quality more generally.
The Treasury produced a Regulatory Impact Statement on the Regulatory Standards Bill. That Regulatory Impact Statement is available here.
[Please note that the Regulatory Standards Bill lapsed in 2017 when it was not reinstated at the start of the 52nd Parliament.]
Documents
Some documents are available in Adobe PDF format only. HTML versions can be supplied on request from Information Services. Using PDF Files
| Doc. Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 31 Mar 2011 | Regulatory Standards Bill - Cabinet Paper Released On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, |
| 14 Feb 2011 |
|
| 9 Feb 2011 |
Released 31 March 2011. Created by Cabinet Office. |
| 2 Feb 2011 |
Released 31 March 2011. Created by Office of the Minister for Regulatory Reform. |
| 15 Mar 2011 | On the New Zealand Legislation website. |
| 2 Feb 2011 |
Created by the Treasury. |
| 15 Mar 2011 | New Bill Sets Higher Standards for Regulation On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, |
| 28 Jun 2010 | Submissions invited on Regulatory Responsibility Bill On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, |
| Jun 2010 |
Released 28 June 2010. On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, Minister for Regulatory Reform. |
| Jul 2010 |
Released 1 July 2010. On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, Minister for Regulatory Reform. |
| 29 Oct 2009 | Minister welcomes Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce report On the Beehive website. On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, Minister for Regulatory Reform. |
| 30 Sep 2009 |
Released 29 October 2009. Created by the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce. Now available in HTML format. |
| 1 Apr 2009 | Regulatory Taskforce members named On the Beehive website. Created by Hon Rodney Hide, |
| 9 Mar 2009 |
Created by the Office of the Minister of Finance, and the |