Regulatory Standards Bill has got to go

13 January 2025

Ngāti Ruanui is urging the Government to immediately halt and throw out the insidious Regulatory Standards Bill.

This week, Ngāti Ruanui joined the growing chorus of voices from around the motu who are vehemently opposed to the bill.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust Kaiw’aka’aere Rachel Arnott said the Regulatory Standards Bill was a kissing cousin to the much-maligned Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill.

The bill aims to embed libertarian principles, exclude Treaty-related principles, and establish a Regulatory Standards Board to review complaints about regulations.

“This National-led coalition hid behind ACT’s apron strings when Aotearoa strongly pushed back against the Treaty Principles Bill.

“They tried to placate angry kiwis with promises the Bill would not become law.

“Yet, at the same time they are pushing an equally racist bill that will be just as devastating.

“It doesn’t get more duplicitous than that.”  

Arnott said the proposed bill would also give unfettered power to the Minister for Regulation, currently David Seymour, while circumventing the will of the people in favour of corporate greed.

“In effect the regulatory power of the Minister could be used to transform legislation on a scale never seen before.

“This Bill appears to be an attempt to enact an agenda that prioritises the rights and profits of individuals and corporations over the collective rights and wider good of communities.

“This approach provides no checks or balances on Ministerial power.”

Ngāti Ruanui Taiao Officer Graham Young said the deliberate exclusion of a principles relating to te Tiriti was unacceptable.

“The Crown has an overall obligation to ensure legislation and regulation gives effect to te Tiriti.

“The ideological shift of constraining how legislation is developed and applied, both in the future and retrospectively, threatens the very partnership of sovereignty developed through Parliament, the Waitangi Tribunal and Courts.

“In fact, it will likely create more layers of complexity and judicial challenge as both parliament, officials and the courts grapple with the absence of well-founded and agreed te Tiriti principles.”

Young said the rushed and poorly implemented consultation process has become a hallmark of the current government.

“We have serious concern about the limited exposure of this discussion document to our wider communities.

“We consider engagement, feedback and consultation to date to be completely inadequate.

“This lack of good faith underlines our concerns with the passage of this Bill and the commitment given to the Bill through the Coalition Agreement.”