National has today confirmed it will remove two regulations for every new one introduced and will light a regulations bonfire, National’s Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“There are tens of thousands of regulations in New Zealand. There are so many that officials don’t know how many there are or where to find them all.

“National recognises many of these regulations have built up over the years and are no longer fit for purpose. Some of them protect and preserve the interests of industries or highly risk-averse Government or Council officials.

“National will remove barriers to new entrants to the market and streamline unnecessarily slow and expensive bureaucratic procedures.

“Having a concrete policy of eliminating two old regulations for every new regulation introduced will incentivise officials to look at ways of reducing regulations before they impose new ones.

“An example is Labour’s reforms to the Residential Tenancy Act which reduce property rights of landlords, increase costs, discourage the supply of rental properties and increase rents for low income households. That’s not good for the landlord, or the tenant.
“Another example is separate regulations for hairdressers. This should be covered by general health and safety regulations. Instead, hairdressers face regulations around the height of hairdresser chairs, whether there are shadows in the hairdressing area, the strength of lighting and there’s a ban on refreshments from being served while hair is being cut.

“We understand a large number of costly regulations are set by local councils. We respect the right for local councils to set some of their own rules, but a future National Government will not be afraid to legislate over local councils where they impose unnecessary and costly regulations on local businesses and families.

“We will work with local councils to introduce a two for one regulation policy which mirrors the one National will introduce.
“National knows the RMA has failed to protect the environment and allow our infrastructure to grow. There is now widespread support for reforming how we manage our resources.

“National will replace the RMA with transitional legislation as we work towards getting a new development-friendly law in place that is efficient and predictable.

“Only National understands the burdens that are being placed on households and businesses by excessive red tape. We will ensure families have more money in their pockets, we will lower costs and ensure red tape isn’t stopping progress.”

Notes to editors: A list of the first 29 reductions we’ll burn is attached.

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2003/Nationals_Economic_Plan__Regulations_to_be_repealed.pdf

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