The New Zealand Initiative welcomes Parliament’s
enactment today of the Regulatory Standards Bill.
The
Bill requires the government of the day to be much more
transparent to Parliament than before about why it is asking
Parliament to pass laws and regulations. That information
will inform Parliamentary and public debate before decisions
are taken.
The common ground between supporters and
many opponents of the Bill is that the variable quality of
Parliament’s laws and regulations is a concern. Better
checks and balances are desirable.
What many opponents
of the Bill have failed to tell their readers is that it
fully preserves parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament can
still pass any bill it wishes to pass no matter how
inconsistent it is with the principles that the Bill
enumerates. What is new is that the government of the day
will have to be clearer about inconsistencies and about its
reasons for them.
“This new Act is not a silver
bullet that can eliminate poor quality laws and
regulations,” said Dr Bryce Wilkinson, Senior Fellow at
The New Zealand Initiative. “But by improving public
information about departures from fundamental legal
principles and net benefit assessments, it can hope to make
it harder for problematic measures to escape public and
Parliamentary scrutiny before it is too
late.”
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
