Regulation Minister David Seymour has introduced the Regulatory Standards Bill to Parliament, aiming to improve the quality and transparency of lawmaking in New Zealand. Seymour argues that poor regulation has contributed to low productivity and wage stagnation.
The bill is a part of the ACT-National Coalition Agreement and is targeted for enactment by early 2026.
The government argues that the legislation sets out principles for responsible regulation, establishes a new Regulatory Standards Board to assess laws against those principles, and supports the Ministry for Regulation in its oversight role.
“The law doesn’t stop politicians or their officials making bad laws, but it makes it transparent that they’re doing it,” Seymour said.
“In a nutshell: If red tape is holding us back, because politicians find regulating politically rewarding, then we need to make regulating less rewarding for politicians with more sunlight on their activities,” he said.
However, the bill has drawn criticism from Māori legal experts and claimants in an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing.
Tania Waikato, a lawyer representing the Te Pāti Māori linked activist group Toitū te Tiriti said the bill would make it harder for Treaty-compliant legislation to pass: “They are setting up a framework… where [such laws] will fail every time.”
Seymour responded that including a Treaty clause would conflict with the bill’s core purpose of providing equal rights for all under the law.
Centrist Ltd.