ACT Proposes ‘Innovation Trials’ To Pause Regulations On New Tech

Russell
Palmer Political reporter

The
ACT Party has launched a new policy to make it easier for
Ministers to pause regulations to allow companies to test
new technologies.

Leader David Seymour announced the
move in a speech to the Canterbury Club in Christchurch,
rebranding what are often called “regulatory sandboxes” as
“innovation trials”.

The idea is to have government
Ministers able to “strike down specific regulations for a
specific amount of time”.

“If, say, someone wanted to
do a trial of driverless cars in Christchurch, they could go
to the government and it could grant a sandbox where
specific rules were set aside for a specific period in a
specific region.”

He said they were currently used
only “occasionally” but his Regulation Ministry had “created
a blueprint” for how they could become a “default”
option.

“When the inevitable concerns spring up ‘but
what happens if something goes wrong’, the answer is that it
is just a time-limited trial, and if things do go wrong it
doesn’t need to continue. Minds are put at ease, the sky
isn’t falling.”

Seymour pointed to things like
driverless cars; cryptocurrency and digital finance; AI
applications; precision agriculture and cell-cultivated food
as potential solutions that could benefit.

“Are we
making the most of this new age of innovation?
Unfortunately, I think the answer is no … a core driver of
that is a sluggish and slow system of government that
struggles to keep pace with change.”

He gave the
example of Jeremy Clarkson on Clarkson’s Farm using
drones to map field boundaries and identify problems in – or
spray – crops, saying drones in New Zealand weighing more
than 25kg could not be used without a Part 102 certification
that cost up to $2000 and took more than a year to
obtain.

“In Australia, drones up to 150 kilograms
operate on farmland under simple licensing. We’re not
talking about a cutting-edge technology New Zealand can’t
access. We’re talking about something our competitors are
already using, every day, on farms not far from
here.”

He said autonomous vehicle companies were
“burning through billions of dollars trying to find the
right regulatory environment to test their technology at
scale” and unlike other countries, New Zealand could offer a
clear framework, a guaranteed timeline and a “government
that will get out of the way”.

“Bring your idea here.
We’ll build the runway while you’re still designing the
plane.”

He implied New Zealand was falling
behind.

“Singapore actively recruits companies into
its regulatory sandbox programme. The UK’s Financial Conduct
Authority has accepted 191 firms through its sandbox since
2015. These governments made a decision: uncertainty is the
enemy of investment, and we will reduce it faster than
anyone else.

“We will make innovation trials a
standing offer, not a favour a minister grants when someone
complains loudly enough but a published, permanent pathway
that any company, anywhere in the world, can apply to. A
front door for innovation, not a back door.”

ACT
pushed back on questions from RNZ about how appropriate it
was for the Regulations Ministry to have prepared details of
the policy, given public servants are required to be
politically neutral.

“The Ministry has not prepared
details of ACT policy. Innovation trials, also known as
regulatory sandboxes, are already an option for ministers
and ministries. However, no Government ministers have yet
taken up the opportunity to implement a trial,” the party
said.

“ACT is campaigning to ensure that innovation
trials are actually implemented in the next term of
government.”

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