Regulatory Responsibility Bill Gaining Support

Now that ACT leader Rodney Hide's Regulatory Responsibility Bill is going to Select Committee, commentators are beginning to look at the bill's huge positive implications.

Editorial from the Hawkes Bay Today

Finally a bill that could be useful

Finally there is a sense of sensibility in the air. The arrival of the anti-red tape proposed legislation, Acts Regulatory Responsibility Bill, has been welcomed on all sides.

The bill aims to ensure all other pieces of legislation - new and existing - are designed to act efficiently for the least cost to individuals and communities. It proposes that each law and regulation is measured against responsible management practices.

If passed it will ensure all laws and regulations are reassessed every five years so that any rule failing to meet its aim, or that has passed its used-by-date, is identified and removed.

While not directly removing red tape, the bill seeks to allow new and existing rules to be measured against the principles of responsible regulatory management, making it easy for ineffective rules, and those with high compliance costs, to be identified and ditched if necessary.

Compliance costs affect us all, especially small businesses that drive this country, mostly from the smaller centres. Hawke’s Bay should benefit hugely.

Farming operations are in the main one or two-man businesses and rising compliance costs are hurting.

This bill, with support from all angles, looks set to bring some sense to legislation while keeping the legislators themselves honest.

The beauty of it is that before any legislation is enacted, it meets a comprehensive set of criteria.

It even protects the rights of individuals, allows for individual choice and provides an avenue for compensation for landowners if private property is affected by certain rules.

While we cannot limit what future parliaments do, under this bill we can ensure they explain why decisions are made so that Kiwis can make up their minds about whether the right actions are taken.

Ensuring the public knows what rules have failed the test, the bill would put pressure on the politicians to clean up bad laws and regulations from the past and encourage them to pass better ones in the future.

Rodney Hide and his party need to be congratulated on a well considered bill . . . in fact, the bill of all bills.

Hat Tip Rodney Hide