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.”

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