Simon Court ACT MP and Undersecretary to the Minister for RMA Reform and Infrastructure.
The ACT Party aims to support the Government with all of its resolutions, not just those made at New Year, including the commitment to reduce the burden that government imposes on consumers and taxpayers.
That is why ACT’s David Seymour – the Minister for Regulation – has introduced a Regulatory Standards Bill, to cut red tape and help New Zealand get its mojo back.
There are builders who’ll tell you it takes longer to get permission than to build something.
New Zealand has lost a fortune to earthquake regulations in the past decade, because politicians thought, or more accurately felt, more restrictions were the right thing to do after the Canterbury quakes. And yet, fewer than 500 people have died from earthquakes in the history of our country. About the same number die from cancer every three weeks, but we can’t afford all the medicines they need.
People in finance face endless red tape thought to prevent them from giving out loans to people who cannot repay them. The regulators failed to realise it’s already the whole point of the finance industry to not lose money by giving loans that people cannot repay.
Educators say they only want to help children grow to their potential but spend far too much time on bureaucracy. Generations of politicians and bureaucrats with little understanding of their work felt making one rule after another was the right thing to do, and school and kindy staff face the accumulation of those obstructions.
Bad regulation doesn’t just add cost to the things we do, it stops us doing productive things we otherwise would do. Whole projects don’t happen because they’re just too hard, too slow, too costly. Property developers turn down proposals to build more homes after adding up the regulatory costs, meanwhile a shortage of housing is one of our biggest national problems.
It’s not just the workplace and the housing market that are affected by overregulation, it’s our culture. At the school where Sir Edmund Hillary learned to climb, the old quarry walls have health and safety notices saying “do not climb”. Much loved community events such as parades cannot go ahead thanks to the absurd cost of planning something that never caused a problem before.
Into all this comes the Regulatory Standards Bill. The Bill is about making it easier for Kiwis to get stuff done. Whether it’s building a home, hiring someone, or growing a business, bad regulation makes these things more costly or prevents them from happening entirely. That’s why ACT wants to improve the quality of regulation.
The basic proposal is to define some standards for regulation. Most regulations have good intentions, but lawmakers should be required to explain what problem they’re trying to solve and how it justifies any erosion of personal freedom, or property rights, or productivity.
The Bill will not restrict the ability of politicians to regulate. Instead it facilitates the creation of non-binding assessments of whether a proposed regulation meets the standards. If a regulation fails to meet the standards, it can still pass, but the lawmaker has to explain why they haven’t met the standards and why it’s worth it.
The Bill builds on existing regulatory analysis systems to make them more effective, more consistent, and more transparent to the public. Over time, this will result in better laws and a more prosperous New Zealand.
People affected by bad laws will be able to appeal to a Regulatory Standards Board, made up of people who understand regulatory economics. We’ll be able to spend more time doing useful work, and less time complying with the powers that be for little reason.
